


Let's Keep This Between Us

by carlyspade



Series: Only A Universe Between Us - A Crossover Series [1]
Category: Batman (Comics), Supergirl (Comics)
Genre: DC Comics Rebirth, Detective Comics, F/M, Podfic, Podfic Available, Romance, Romantic Comedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-17
Updated: 2017-05-09
Packaged: 2018-10-20 05:00:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 37,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10655415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carlyspade/pseuds/carlyspade
Summary: It's been ten years since Supergirl and Batman met for the first time when her pod landed in Gotham Harbor. They still dislike each other as much as the day they met but when an opportunity arises that causes them to spend more time around each other out of the alter-ego tights, do they really hate each other as much as they thought?





	1. Lil 'S'

Artwork by [vinz-el-tabanas](https://vinz-el-tabanas.deviantart.com/)

It’s times like these I often wonder what a normal 20-something year old woman would be doing on a Friday night. Going to the movies with her girlfriends? Staying in and watching Netflix and stuffing her face with pizza and beer? Or maybe they are wiping bugs from their eyes and avoiding bird strikes left and right as they fly through the air, chasing an intergalactic evil doer. Oh that last part? Yeah, that is what _I’m_ currently doing. Sorry, I’ve never been good at introductions, let me start from the beginning…or rather, I’ll briefly get you up to speed…no pun intended.

The people of Earth call me Supergirl. You may know my cousin, Superman? Well, our birth given names are Kara Zor-El and Kal-El, both born to the House of El on the planet of Krypton. We were both sent to Earth by our parents to survive our planet’s destruction. Kal was sent to Earth as a baby and I was sent after him to watch over him at the ripe age of 15. Well, my pod was thrown off course and by the time I actually _did_ land on Earth, Kal had already grown into a full, farm bred man and was already donning the tights and the name of Superman. My pod crash landed in Gotham Harbor and I spent the first night wandering around buck naked…yeah, you heard me; how utterly embarrassing now that I know that public nudity is, well, frowned upon on Earth. Not only that, but at that time, I also didn’t know that Earth’s sun gave me…powers; so there I was naked, awkwardly floating everywhere, and laser cutting nearly everything in sight with my fiery eye beams. It was…terrifying, to say the least.

Enter: tall, dark and grumpy, otherwise known as Batman. I guess I should be thankful that he saved me from killing everyone and making more of an ass of myself than I already had, but I would NEVER say that to his face. He didn’t trust me the very moment his eyes landed on me…and I was even naked! If it had not been for Kal,he actually would have done experiments on me. He seems to think to this day that I am more dangerous than Kal will ever be and for that, he still doesn’t trust me. Here we are, almost ten years later, countless lives saved(by me personally) and I _still_ haven’t worked into his favor. Needless to say, Batman and I don’t like each other, scratch that, we HATE each other.

This thought resurfaced in my thoughts as I whizzed by the Gothic letterings of the Gotham City sign. I rolled my eyes to myself, still giving winged chase to this guy; what was his deal anyway? I continued to weave through skyscrapers, following his every move, slowly starting to actually gain on him.  

“What’s the matter? Flying muscles out of shape?” I taunted as my hands out stretched until I could feel the heels of his boots on my fingertips and then, suddenly, his form dropped towards the ground.

It all happened so fast, I nearly collided with an oncoming building as I quickly averted my direction to float downward. As my boots met pavement, I spotted the man running into a nearby alleyway and I super sped to the entrance before slowly walking towards him, giving him time to let it sink in that he ran himself into a dead end. The man turned around and stared at me, spreading a cocky grin over his face. Okay, was now really the time to feel cocky? As I got closer, I realized there was nothing seemingly alien about this man at all, at least  not on the surface. I  couldn’t say much, considering I could pass for any number of regular human types any given day of the week.

“What ya gonna do, Supergirl? Punch me? I’m sure you hit…like a girl.” The man spat at me. I couldn’t help it, I actually laughed, which didn’t seem to be well received from my wise cracking assailant.

“What’s your deal? Did you lure me into this alleyway with the sole intentions of provoking me to hit you?” I asked with all seriousness.

He looked perplexed and I could tell my response was not what he was expecting. Then the man tried to run past me, I kid you not. My arm quickly shot out, grabbing the man by his jacket. I slowly lifted him off the ground above me and firmly planted him against the brick wall of the alleyway.

“You’re going to answer two questions for me. One: What did you steal when you were in Metropolis? Two: How were you flying?” I asked, tightening my fist around the jacket held firmly in my grip.

All I had to do was jerk my arm and this man’s neck would easily break. This was an ongoing battle that Kal and I faced each and every day, which, honestly, made us superheroes right there. The man began to laugh and not just a chuckle, but a laugh that rose from the pit of his stomach. I arched a single blonde eyebrow before slowly moving my hand closer to his throat, listening to the laugh slowly beginning to die out.

“I swear I didn’t steal anything!” He suddenly shrieked out as I used my x-ray vision to survey the contents of his pockets, narrowing my eyes at a syringe that I immediately grabbed from his inner jacket pocket.

“Lie number one. What was in this?” I urged, as my hand ever so slowly started to grip tighter and ever closer to the man’s throat, not intending to actually harm him, but a little scare never hurt anyone, right?

“I’m diabetic!” Alright, now I was losing my patience as I lightly pulled the man forward and then slammed him against the wall, displaying the syringe right at eye level  before the ever increasingly irritating man.

“Lie number two.” The man’s eyes grew wide as saucers as I furrowed my brows, awaiting his inevitable answer before his entire expression changed. There he went again…back to Mr. Cocky.

“I’m not telling you a goddamn thing, alien, and you won’t do a GODDAMN THING ABOUT IT!” The man yelled as he actually spat in my face this time. Anger began to well up from the tips of my toes all the way up to my shoulder blades when I heard a faint sound of boots hitting the pavement behind me.

I’d recognize those ninja- like moves anywhere…

”Oh but I will…” the dark figure said behind me as I saw a sudden stain form at the front of the man’s pants, which made me immediately drop him in disgust.

“Oh gross!” I blurted out, taking a step back. The shadow wasted no time in shoving past me to pick up the man by his throat before slamming him against the same brick wall I myself had him pressed against and the man could only stare as he began to stammer.

“Bat…Bat…” The Bat grew impatient as he slammed the man against the brick wall yet again, which made me wince; he was always the unorthodox type, that’s for sure.

“Answer the questions!” He bellowed as the man began to stammer once more.

“I-I didn’t steal nothin’! The boss gave us this juice that I don’t know-, they said it’d react differently to all of us. It made me fly! But we didn’t have time to steal the money, because Blondie over there showed up!” The Bat idly glanced at me over his shoulder before returning to “Detective Mode” with the idiot.

“Who is your boss?” The Bat questioned, sliding the man even further up the brick wall. Good Lord, for not having super strength, he was acting like this man weighed no more than a feather!

“Gi-Gigante…but I didn’t get a first name; that’s all I got!” A low growl escaped the Bat’s throat as he pinched a certain area around the man’s shoulder blades that made him fall unconscious  before he dropped down to the ground like a sack of flour.

“I had that handled you know…,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest, the wind ever so slightly picking up my cape to make  my stance all the more heroic. He turned to look at me, his eyes falling to the red of my boots before rising up to the blonde of my hair with a smirk.

“Clearly. You have a reputation to maintain…you’re welcome.” This man just always seemed to know how to get right under my skin, and the worst part was, he flat out _knew_ he was a permanent boil, forever just festering and irritating the hell out of me. Before I even had a chance to retort to his banter, he was speaking again in that gravelly, deep, and menacing voice…his Bat voice.

“Aren’t your colors a little, bright…for Gotham?” He asked me, both of our capes idly flapping in the breeze as we stared at one another, his height leaving him towering over me much like Kal’s always did. I scoffed before moving my hands to either of my hips and shifting my weight to one side.

“Tell that to the clown…” As quick as a viper always at the ready to strike, he ends my sentence for me.

“…who is a villain. I always knew you were evil.” The grin that he gave me just then was so smug it could have curled the paint off the walls and caught fire. I could feel that same heat and rage rising from my toes again as I watched him begin to remove the grappling hook from his utility belt. Seriously, where does he keep all those gadgets; there’s like, what,  six pockets on that belt?

“Tell ‘Superman’ he owes me a hundred bucks.” He told me, not bothering to make eye contact with me as I stared on at him in disbelief.

“Are you serious…for what?” I asked, seeing those blue eyes surrounded by smudges of black peering back up at me with a smirk playing across his features.

“Poker. He lost.” My mouth dropped open, not even believing the words I was hearing from the rich playboy’s mouth. Yeah I’ve known who ‘ol  Batsy truly was for a long time now.

“Aren’t you a millionaire?!” I questioned as Batman’s arm moved vertically, prepping to launch his grappling hook.

“Billionaire actually, but a bet’s a bet. Fly back to Metropolis Lil’ ‘S’. I can handle Gigante,” he remarked as the grappling hook launched and his form disappeared into the night with a light _whoosh_. Sure, I could have flown after him and caught up with him easily, I mean, after all, he’s only human, right? A human that always had one hell of an exit. I’d let him have that one, just don’t tell anyone.


	2. Linda

As I flew back to Metropolis, a million and one things were rummaging about in my alien brain, though that can easily happen when you’re soaring above everything. The buildings, the people, the cars…it is such a surreal feeling that it is hard to even put into words except that, this must be what the birds feel like, minus the random pooping on things part; that’d just be weird.

Once I arrived at my apartment, I landed on my terrace to find a note stuck to my back window, ‘Stop by my work tomorrow. We need to talk. –K’ Man, why was he always so cryptic? That ‘K’ standing of course for Kal-El or Kent…however you chose to look at it. Who leaves notes on windows anymore anyway? A simple text would have sufficed but ‘ol Clarky boy was pretty set in his ways and absolutely hated cell phones. He still claimed the processors are laced with kryptonite or something, as they always seem to fog up his brain. I smiled to myself as I let myself into my apartment through the sliding glass door, before removing the uniform, showering, and crawling into bed. Nice of Kal to leave me guessing just what in the world he needed to talk to me about so urgently. Maybe I could call him? One glance at the clock affirmed that’d be a seriously bad idea; Lois would kill me, kryptonite stake and all. Hmph, until tomorrow, galaxy I thought as I turned out the lights.

The next day, I stood in the elevator of the Daily Planet building in downtown metropolis, clad in my jeans, sneakers and Led Zeppelin t-shirt. I usually made it a point to dress as unprofessionally as possible when Kal randomly asked me to meet him at work without wreaking havoc on my personal self-worth. It drove him absolutely bonkers. I ran a hand through my long blonde locks as the elevator doors opened to the bustling chaos that was the Daily Planet; papers were flung to and fro, phones were being slammed, and I am pretty sure I could hear Perry White yelling in his office from across the room. I made a bee line for Kal’s desk, slowly peeking my eyes over the cubicle wall to see his glasses covered face shoved into a computer screen.

“You do realize it’s almost lunch time?” Kal said to me as I rolled my eyes and made my way around the side of the cubicle to peer at him with crossed arms.

“Your point? Your very detailed message failed to depict a specific time for this little shin dig of yours.” I retort as Kal pushed the glasses up his nose as if those lenses were actually helping his vision in anyway. It had to have been so annoying to wear those blasted things; it was bad enough when you needed them, but Kryptonians? Never, and I mean _never_ would you see me in a pair of those. I watched Kal do a quick scan of my attire as he let out a sigh; here it comes.

“Why can’t you at least pretend to dress normally when you come here? Led Zeppelin, really?” Kal spoke as he stood from his desk with that imposing, tall figure of his.

“Oh come on Clark, who here doesn’t like Led Zeppelin?” I asked as a random male’s voice suddenly sung the popular lyrics to Led Zeppelin’s, ‘Immigrant Song’. “We come from the land of ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow…”

I smiled at Clark, still not seeing the face of the man who didn’t do too shabby of a job singing, and threw up a rock symbol  while saying, “Rock on brother.” A random hand displaying a returned rock symbol sprung from a random cubicle as Kal slapped a palm to his face.

 

“Next thing I know, you’ll be walking in here with a lower back tattoo,” he said, as my eyes suddenly grew as wide as watermelons.

“Wait…do you think they could actually do that, like at Star Labs or something?” I looked at him with actual curiosity as I felt a firm grip on my arm. He led me to a quiet meeting room at the corner of the floor. He shut the door behind us, turned and crossed his arms over his chest. His jaw seemed to square off more than it already was, was that even possible?

“Kara, I think it’s time you found a job.” He said to me as I looked around as if I were being Punk’d; where was Ashton Kutcher hiding, the vents maybe?

“Clark, if this is about my rent money, I could always move back in with you and Lois, or…get a part time job at Starbucks maybe? I’d make a pretty amazing barista; those coffees would be the perfect temperature every time, guaranteed.”

“Kara, I am being serious. You are excessively too far into the limelight now without having, you know…a job, an identity.” I blinked at him a few times as if he were speaking Mandarin before placing my hands on my hips.

“Out with it Clark, you already have something in mind, obviously, or else you wouldn’t have asked me to come out here,” I said as I watched Kal remove a piece of paper from his back pocket and place it on the meeting room table before me, giving it a little slide in my direction. It took me three seconds to notice the big fat ‘Wayne Enterprises’ logo at the top of the page and my eyes immediately shot back to Kal.

“Wayne Enterprises? Clark you have got to be kidding me, I can’t work at Wayne Enterprises! He’d probably make me a janitor! Oh my god, I’d have to clean up Bruce Wayne’s crap remnants and random sunflower seed shells that are like stuck into the crevices of his office chair or-,” I began to stammer before Kal delicately raised a hand to slap over my mouth.

“Kara…read it before you start doing your rambling thing. I honestly think this would be good for you. It’d be someone we know, someone we can trust, who already knows who you are. Plus, I’d love to see him squirm.” Kal said smirking to himself as I continued to read the page and noticed in big bold letters the word, ‘Intern’.

“So, you want me to be an…intern? To what the research and development department?” I questioned, again not bothering to read the rest of the page; I wanted to hear it come from his conniving, sculpted face.

“No, you’d be an intern to Wayne, himself. Like I said this would be perfect for you. I want you to apply today, actually, right now, with me helping you. We will have to make a lot of this up, obviously, and give you a different name, but as soon as Wayne sees you, well, he owes me a favor.” I pretended to look over the page as I cleared my throat.

“You might want to give me a hundred bucks to give him then, if you’re planning on calling in a favor.” I managed to work in, not able to make eye contact with him.

“Hundred bucks? For what? And how do you-, did you see him recently?” His voiced sounded anything but calm as he outright bellowed that last question.

“I followed a guy into Gotham City last night; no big deal, words were exchanged, answers were received, and he may have mentioned that you lost a poker game. Anyway, let’s get working on this resume, huh, Big Guy?” I said as I slapped the paper into his chest, brushing past him to go to the nearest computer that was accessible; any computer, even a typewriter would have sufficed just to get me out of Kal’s heat vision that was beginning to creep at the corners of his eyes.

We spent the next couple of hours formulating a make-shift resume for myself that would be enough to pass through human resources’ prying eyes, but not so far-fetched that it would seem completely and ridiculously made up. For instance, he was not a fan of my wanting to throw on there that I could speak Cantonese, or that I did a tour with the Hawaiian Tropic bikini troupe;though, honestly, I think anyone who worked for Bruce Wayne would believe that slime-ball would call in a woman who had that on her resume. Once we finished, I printed out the shiny new resume and stared at it for a few moments.

“Okay, so my alias is Linda Danvers. Man, Clark, I don’t know, I still think that name sounds pretty lame; can’t I have an alliterative name like yours and Lois’s? Like…Linda…Lang?” I felt like I’d heard that name before somewhere, but it just seemed to flow. Kal obviously didn’t share in the enthusiasm as he peered at me over his glasses.

“Seriously Kara? That’s my ex from high school.” He said to me rather matter of factly and my eyebrows shot to the ceiling.

“Right! Bad idea…um Laurel…Lance?” Again, a name I felt like I heard before, but the alliterations just kept on flowing. Kal pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes with a sigh.

“That…was the original Black Canary, Kara –your name is Linda Danvers. Printed. Done deal. You’ll also need these.” He reached into his desk and produced a pair of black rimmed glasses similar to his, but more petite. I stared at them, feeling bile start to work its way up my throat.

“Clark…please, I am just not a glasses wearing kind of gal.” I looked at him pleadingly as he rose to slip the glasses onto my face with a smile.

“Exactly, all the more reason to wear them. You look great, like a cute librarian or something.” He commented as I nearly choked on my spit upon hearing my cousin call me a ‘cute librarian’. I rose from my seat to peer at myself in a nearby mirror, and honestly…I could rock these.

“Alright, so we e-mailed your resume about half an hour ago, so hopefully, if all goes well, you should hear something back by tom-,” Kal’s words were cut short as my cell phone started ringing. I answered to a pleasant woman’s voice with a British accent asking for, ‘Linda Danvers’. Time to put on Smooth Supergirl I thought as I sat down in Kal’s office chair, idly spinning in it.

“This is she.” The woman continued to tell me that they were extremely impressed with my resume and wanted to have me come in tomorrow morning for an interview with Mr. Wayne. I politely accepted and thanked her for her time and attention and ended the call.

“That was Ms. Lancaster; I am cordially invited to attend an interview meeting with Mr. Wayne at 0900 hours in the morn of tomorrow.” I said with my most pompous, annoying voice that I could possibly muster. Kal just rolled his eyes as he reached into his back pocket to grab his wallet.

“Great. Make sure you actually wear something professional; don’t forget your glasses, and do be sure to give Mr. Wayne my regards.” He said with a wink as he handed me a hundred dollar bill.


	3. Rumble

For whatever reason, my heart raced as I made  my way up the sidewalk leading to the massive Wayne Enterprises building. It was half an hour before my scheduled interview time, but I wanted to be sure to make a good impression whether I knew the owner of the building or not. I opened the glass door, putting on my most genuine smile as I approached the front desk. I shopped last night specifically for this interview; black pencil skirt, black stilettos, a cream colored, low cut, billowy shirt, and a necklace with a small bat charm, just to make him squirm that much more. My blonde hair was done up in a professional looking bun at the base of my neck with the short layers at the front of my hair parted to one side, and of course, I remembered my glasses. I clutched the portfolio that bore my made up resume to my chest as I approached the receptionist with a smile. She actually seemed to somewhat check me out as her eyes dipped to my waist and back up to my face, maybe she swung both ways?

“Ms. Danvers?” she asked, taking me aback slightly.

“Um, yeah-yes, that is me.” I answered back, feeling a bit stupid for stuttering. The woman leaned over to her phone as she picked up the receiver and punched in a few numbers.

“Ruby? Yes – his 9 o’clock is here…..Certainly.” She hung up the phone and looked back to me motioning to the elevator doors.

“Floor 20, Ruby will be waiting for you at the front desk there. Good luck.” She said to be with a wink and a smile before returning to her paperwork. I cleared my throat and headed to the elevator, my heart beginning to feel like it was going to beat right through my chest. Why was I so freaking nervous? Honestly, I’d never been on a job interview in my life; why would I have been? This shouldn’t have been a big deal though, I thought; I know this guy, it is practically in the bag. My eyes shot up to stare out in front me as the elevator stopped and the doors opened with a loud _bing_. Ruby rose from her desk as soon as she saw the elevator doors open and moved around front to greet me. I walked forward, brushing off the nervous tick that was attempting to consume me. Then I started to freak out, wondering if I had armpit sweat stains; do Kryptonians even sweat? I’ve never noticed before, but I felt like I was sweating as I slipped my hand into Ruby’s for a firm shake.

“Pleasure to meet you Ms. Danvers, Mr. Wayne is ready for you; if you’d follow this way.” She said with that same British accent I remembered hearing yesterday. She started her saunter down the massive hallway, idly referring to me over her shoulder as she walked.

“Mr. Wayne will be very pleased to know you arrived so early. He just loves punctuality,” she said as I let the portfolio fall to my side, clutching it in my palm as I subtly glanced around at all the offices behind frosted glass windows.

“Oh, well, that’s me most certainly, Ms. Punctual,” I said, which, to be quite honest, was a total load of bull, but one must keep their appearances, right?

She suddenly stopped at the end of the hall in front of a pair of dark colored mahogany doors with huge brass door handles. The nameplate displayed across the front of one of the doors said it all- “Bruce Wayne, CEO”. I felt a lump start to form in my throat; seriously what was wrong with me?

“Here we are, Ms. Danvers. I wish you the best of luck, I’m sure he will love you. Nice necklace by the way,” she said, pointing to my bat charm hanging just at the right height to be aligned with my breasts; not like I planned that or anything. My hand reached up to run fingers across the charm with a smile.

“Thank you, I seem to have a fascination for creatures of the night.” I sputtered out before she released a slightly pompous laugh, lightly touching my arm with her hand.

“Don’t we all, go right on in, Ms. Danvers, and again, good luck,” she said before she placed a hand on one of the door handles and opened it for me. My eyes rose slightly as the door opened, spotting the dark haired man from about 30 feet away in the center of the humungous office. I was pretty sure his office was as big as my entire apartment, possibly even bigger. I cleared my throat and took a few steps inside so that I was right at the precipice, giving Ruby enough room to shut the door behind me. Bruce was shuffling papers on his desk before his eyes finally lifted to land right at my black stilettos and gradually they began to raise, very, very slowly.

“Ms……Danvers?” He said, somewhat quizzically as he rose from his seat, staring at me. Did he recognize me already? I mean he was one of the world’s best detectives right? I also happened to still be thirty feet away from him and after realizing this, I started to slowly walk towards him, using my fingers to brush some of the blonde locks from my eyes. I took a good look at him and found myself biting my lip. I hadn’t seen Bruce out of his bat form in a very long time and I had to admit, he made suits look good- scratch that, _damn_ good. I found myself idly wondering what he looked like out of any kind of suit- wait what, _oh my God, focus Kara_ , I thought to myself. We then stood face to face, my hand extending to shake his own, fully lifting my chin to look at him and I could tell that’s when the Great Detective solved the case. He shook my hand, bending his head down low enough to peer at my features and his eyes grew wide.

“Are you kidding me? Is this some kind of joke?” he said, which made me frown slightly, putting a hand on my hip.

“Excuse me? I didn’t see any disclaimer on the job description stating people that you knew couldn’t apply for the position,” I said, which was entirely the truth and I could tell he felt slightly defeated as he idly tapped a very expensive golden pen on the wood of his desk and sat down. I chose to remain standing because I had a point to make.

“Did Clark put you up to this?” he said in his usual dull, serious tone; honestly, sometimes he could be such a wet blanket.

“You _know_ that he did, but-,” I started, and before I could even finish, Bruce had the phone to his ear, dialing a number faster than super speed. I lurched forward, leaning across his desk, depressing the receiver button to end the call whilst keeping my finger firmly placed. My chest was in line with Bruce’s face and the bat charm swung idly back and forth. I watched his eyes drop, whether they were looking at my cleavage or the bat charm, I wasn’t certain.

“Like what you see?” I said with raised eyebrows as Bruce’s eyes panned up to meet mine and the phone receiver landed back on its cradle.

“You’re the one aptly displaying the Wonder Twins; I am human after all, as you repeatedly remind me,” he said with a light smirk as my form slowly made its way back to an upright position on the other side of his desk.

“Nice touch by the way,” he said, gesturing towards the bat charm that I kneaded between my fingers. “Subtle,” he said with a smirk and I’d swear he was actually amused a bit by my symbolism.

“Look, Bruce, I don’t like this anymore than you do, but Clark insists that I start a job, an alter-ego, like the rest of you have. I, kind of, well…agree with him. Do _not_ tell him I said that.”  I insist as I finally find myself comfortable enough to sit, crossing my legs unabashedly. Bruce watched those stems cross one over the other before he leaned back in his office chair in thought.

“Hm, I agree with him as well, but…we’ll keep that between the two of us,” he said with a wink before he rose from his chair, slipping his hands in his pockets and leaning on the corner of his desk near my position. I started to see why Bruce Wayne was known for being this infamous, charming playboy; he just absolutely _oozed_ sensuality and smelled the like vanilla, cedar, and pure alpha male. I rolled my eyes at myself, clearing my throat again.

“Would you honestly be willing to do absolutely all the tasks an intern is expected to do?” he asked as my eyebrows rose to the ceiling. My mouth worked faster than my brain as I began to sputter.

“What-, you mean like bending over your desk for you?” I said, suddenly feeling the blood rush to my cheeks whilst thanking anything that was Holy that Kryptonians didn’t shown skin fluctuations. Bruce’s eyebrows rose before he let out a genuine, hearty laugh.

“Uh, no, you pervert, like getting my coffee, running errands, answering phones…normal, mundane personal assistant duties. However, I’m not against testing how much weight my desk can handle either,” he said, form slightly leaning towards my own as I found myself leaning backward away from him, laughing nervously.

“I was totally testing you on the whole desk thing, I’ve gotta know the integrity of my future employer. Wouldn’t want any HR issues or anything, right?” I said with a gulp as Bruce smirked and rose from the desk, making his way behind it once more. He sat down, making direct eye contact with me and I swear I could feel the clasp of my bra snap off from that look alone.

“You would be so lucky, Ms. Danvers,” he said as I raised a hand to adjust the glasses on my face to detract from the look that involuntarily displayed itself. I cleared my throat and quickly changed the subject.

“Coffee, yes I can do coffee. You take it black, right?” I said as he folded his hands over one another in pure professionalism atop his desk.

“You already know me so well, Ms. Danvers. I see good things here,” he said, still playing up my alter-ego, which was still taking some getting used to. I smiled at him as I adjusted in my seat.

“So, did I get the job?” I asked with peaked enthusiasm.

“If you are willing to do as I ask and keep face, if you know what I mean, I can see this working well. You can start tomorrow,” he replied as he started to scribble on a piece of paper feverishly. I stood up and removed the hundred-dollar bill, extending it towards him.

“Perfect, thank you so much. Clark sends his regards,” I said as Bruce stopped what he was writing to look at the money with a smirk.

“Keep it. Buy yourself another one of those skirts.” He actually winked at me as I looked left to right, almost as if some invisible person might have seen that, as I tucked the money back into my pocket and rose from my seat, extending my hand for a shake.

“Seriously, thank you again for doing this, Bruce. I appreciate it,” I said, fighting every compulsion to not end that statement with sarcasm or a witty anecdote. He shook my hand in return and smirked.

“I just hope you’re ready for this,” he said, back to his serious tone as I offered him a wicked grin in return.

“Ready to rumble,” I replied as I walked towards the door, making sure to give him a good view of that skirt as I did so. Once I was on the other side of the door, I shut it and leaned my back against it with a sigh. I pushed the glasses off my nose and pushed them to the top of my head.

“What have I gotten myself into?” I said aloud to myself as a booming voice spoke from the opposite side of the door.

“I can still hear you,” the voice said as I nearly jumped out of my skin, making a mad dash for the elevator pressing the button so many times, I almost pushed  it in on itself. Once inside the elevator, I let out another sigh as my eyes scanned down to look at the bat charm around my neck and I bit my lip.

“Shit,” is all I could think to say.


	4. Cover

After a few weeks, I started to get into the swing of things and I had to admit, I loved that whenever I caught wind of trouble in Metropolis,  Bruce would never bat an eyelash when I’d suddenly super speed away. Well, honestly, even the fact I could super speed in front of him period out of costume was exhilarating. Likewise, whenever he had ‘Bat Duties’ to attend to, I could tell that me already knowing his alter ego gave him a sense of calm that I am sure he never realized would be so comforting.

It was just another Tuesday morning as I walked off the elevators at Wayne Enterprises, a coffee caddy clutched in my palm. I gave a broad smile to Ruby as I approached her desk, adjusting the glasses on my face before setting a coffee cup in front of her. She grasped it with both hands and gave it a good whiff.

“Chai tea, oh Ms. Danvers, you just spoil me,” she said to me with an appreciative smile as I put a hand on my hip, waving a finger at her.

“How many times do I have to ask you to call me Linda, Ruby, and it’s really no trouble at all,” I said as I walked past her to Bruce’s office and opened the door, keeping it propped open with my hip as I carried my purse and coffee caddy in with me.

Bruce had his face buried in a mountain of paperwork, per usual; I swear that man had to sign 200 papers every single day, easily, I thought. I approached his desk and set the coffee cup down in front of him, demanding his attention. His eyes scanned over the coffee as he removed the lid to explore its contents.

“What? No sugar?” he said, looking up at me with a smirk. I grabbed the cup from his massive paws and pushed my lips to the side of it, leaving a well-placed lipstick smudge in the shape of my kiss before I put it back down in front of him. He stared at it for a moment and then shook his head before he took a sip from the piping hot contents.

“You know, Ruby is going to start getting the wrong impression,” he said as he raised an eyebrow at me. I could only roll my eyes as I removed my own coffee, tossing the empty caddy into the trashcan.

“Oh please, she had the wrong impression the first day I walked into Wayne Enterprises. Besides, I’m sure I’m not the first skinny blonde to waltz my way in here,” I said, taking a sip from my coffee  before frowning as I realized my coffee had somehow gotten cold.

“Mm, I usually prefer brunettes,” he remarked as I removed the lid from my coffee, took off my glasses and proceeded to use my heat vision to bring the steam back. I also used this as a detraction from the major eye roll I wanted to give at his comment.

“So what is the agenda today, Boss?” I said as I plopped myself down in the chair across from his desk. He grabbed a notepad and started scribbling on it before speaking to me.

“Actually, I wanted you to buy a gift for someone for me and have it delivered to that address. She likes…gold jewelry or cashmere sweaters. Something like that. I trust your judgment,” he said as he removed the sheet of paper from the notepad and set it in front of me.

“One: I think that is the first time you used the word ‘trust’ in any form of communication directed at me and two: just who is the lucky victim-, I mean _girl_?” I said trying to hide the tinge of jealousy I felt creeping its way up my spine.

“Why, Ms. Danvers, is that jealousy I detect?” he said, completely disregarding my victim quip and going straight for the jugular. See, I told you…absolute viper. I immediately laughed as I made a gesture in the air with my hand as if waving off his accusation.

“Oh please Bruce, my jealous rages usually involve something catching fire or becoming frozen,” I said as I blew a small puff of artic chill from my cheeks with a grin. Bruce shook his head, returning his gaze back down to that damn paperwork.

“Agatha MacDonald,” he said. My eyes widened as I put a hand on either armrest of my chair before launching myself forward at him.

“Agatha MacDonald, the super-rich heiress?! She’s, like, 90 years old!” I said, both shocked and completely grossed out.

“What can I say? I tend to attract the occasional cougar,” he said rather matter of factly as I discovered I simply could not contain my eye rolls at that point. I slunk back in my chair with huff.

“Yeah I guess you always _were_ more of a cat person,” I muttered under my breath. Bruce’s eyes immediately darted to my face with a grimace as he slammed his pen down on the desk, catching me off guard.

“You’re a little spit fire this morning, what’s got your skirt in a bunch?” he said haughtily. My eyes narrowed at him with bewilderment, having not realized I was so on edge until he brought it up.

“I guess I am a little on edge…haven’t seen a lot of action lately,” I said, my eyes turning to look at the window longingly. Bruce stared at me for a moment before waving his hands at the desk as if presenting it to me in an infomercial.

“There is always my desk.” I looked at him, perplexed for a moment, before it suddenly dawned on me that he was referring to an earlier quip of his about how much weight his desk could handle and my eyes grew wide.

“No, no, no…no...not _that_ kind of action-, I mean there’s been no action there either lately-, but I-,oh my God, I meant fighting, _fighting_ …action.” I put my head in my hands, admitting defeat for a moment as I successfully embarrassed myself to the point of feeling faint. I peeked through my fingers to find him staring at me with a smug grin, looking damn right proud of himself for making me squirm.

“I’ve actually been meaning to talk to you about that…the fighting that is.” He gave me a wink as he stood from his desk. He moved to the corner and leaned against it, folding his arms across his chest. I could make out the curves of his muscles through his white shirt as he did so.

“Obviously, you are incredibly powerful given your abilities, but I’ve noticed your technique is somewhat lacking. It’s all well and good when you’re fighting us mere humans, but this could potentially get you severely hurt or worse when fighting anything else. Your superpowers will only get you so far,” he said, unflinching as he awaited my response. Oh wow, he was actually serious.

“Are you being serious right now? The only time I ever got hurt was with Darkseid…,” I said as I remembered that horrible time when I was brainwashed by said villain; A time that had nearly killed both Kal and me. It was then that I also remembered that Bruce straight out dodged Darkseid’s omega beam. I still think Bruce is descendant of some…god or something; how else could you possibly explain his ‘human superpowers’?

“Did I have powers when I fought Darkseid? I was able to help you because of intuition, foresight and experience. All three of you which you are severely lacking,” he said, once again with that intense seriousness splashed all over his face.

“Man, tell me how you really feel,” I muttered as I sulked in my chair. I watched as Bruce stood up straight and started to roll up his shirtsleeves to his elbows. He moved to the center of the room and lifted a hand to motion me towards him. After I took a moment to stare at his now bared muscular forearms, I stood from my chair before cautiously walking towards him.

“What are we…doing?” I said slowly and hesitantly as he took a wider stance.

“I want you to hit me,” he said sternly and I could do nothing but laugh.

“Oh come on, Bruce, I don’t want to hurt you,” I said as a wicked grin spread across his face.

“You won’t,” he said confidently as I moved in  closer to him and rolled my own shirtsleeves up. I threw the most halfhearted, girly slap towards him that I’ve ever thrown in my life. Bruce rolled his eyes and stood up straight, holding a hand out to either side of him.

“Are you kidding me right now? I said hit me!” he bellowed with determination in his eyes that lit a fire in my chest. My face grew serious as I threw a punch at him, which was quickly deflected. Well wow, okay, maybe a little faster, a little harder, I thought. I swung another punch and not only was it deflected again, but he also lightly slapped me in the face, which caused my fake glasses to tumble to the ground. I ran a hand through my tussled locks as I traced fingertips over the area of my face that he touched with annoyance. It was on now, I thought as an all-out spar ensued. Every punch, every move that I attempted, I found Bruce could dodge or deflect. I even used my super speed occasionally and he was one step ahead of me every time. It was remarkable.

My enthusiasm got the better of me and for one mere moment, I forgot to reign in my strength. I decided to use my super hearing on Bruce’s joints and muscles to hear which side shifted. I was able to detect he was about to throw a punch from his right side and I ducked. When I rose, my fist came up with me and slammed right into Bruce’s chin, sending him flying into a nearby wall with a stagger. My hands immediately came to my mouth in a gasp. I started to move towards him before Bruce’s form sprang to his feet and his hands ripped the top portion of his shirt open to send buttons flying everywhere. My eyebrows furrowed as he barreled towards me. What the hell? Suddenly, his mouth engulfed mine and his hand tugged at my hair, just in time for Ruby to fling open the door  to his office.

“Mr. Wayne, I know you said to not disturb you, but I just wanted to make sure you were…..okay,” Ruby said as she burst into the office only to see Bruce and myself kissing. Bruce pulled away from the kiss and let go of my hair as he turned to look at Ruby, her eyes immediately dropping to his torn shirt with a rise of her eyebrow. Bruce didn’t say a word as Ruby held her hands up in mock defense.

“I am so very, very ,sorry, Mr. Wayne…um…carry on!” she said as she quickly backed out of the office, shutting the door behind her. Bruce raised the back of his hand to run across his mouth before he looked back to me. I could still feel his lips on my mine and at the moment, I was completely confused by the way I was feeling.

“Sorry, I had to cover for you throwing me into a wall. That would’ve been a bit harder to explain,” he said as he looked down at his torn shirt, which also had a couple specks of blood from my fists of fury.

“Um, yeah, no…its fine; your solution was a lot more believable-, um, totally.” I cleared my throat as I ran my hands through my hair and moved to pick up my glasses from the floor. Bruce walked to the closet at the back corner of the office. He removed his tattered shirt, my eyes tracing over the muscular arms now on display as they sprouted from the tank top he wore under the shirt. He grabbed a fresh shirt and slipped it over himself before turning to look at me again.

“What you did there was exactly what I was talking about, you used your instincts to predict what I was going to do and took advantage of it,” he said as he buttoned up the shirt and tucked it into his pants.

“I’d only ask if you not make it a habit of throwing me into walls in the future. One: it wreaks havoc on my ego and two: I can only fake kissing you so many times before you fall head over heels in love with me,” he said with a wink and a chuckle. He slipped his hands into his pockets and peered on at me as I guffawed and crossed my arms over my chest.

“What would you say if I offered to train you? I have a gym at the mansion,” he said.

“Well, it’d definitely be better than sparring with you in my heels and destroying your office,” I said with a smile.

“That…is very true. We’ll start tomorrow then and of course, it’s probably for the best to not tell Clark,” he said and I laughed. There wasn’t a whole lot I was telling Clark at all lately. Maybe if he wasn’t such a tight wad about absolutely everything. He still acted like I was fifteen or something.

“Absolutely. I’ll, uh…go and get that gift you need, for Agatha, is it?” I said as I moved to grab my purse and sling it over my shoulder.

“Mrs. MacDonald yes-, she made a generous contribution to one of the top charities I sponsor. Figured it’d be best to show my appreciation,” he admitted to me. I smiled to myself, letting it disappear before I looked at him.

“Agreed. I’ll see you in a little while,” I said as I walked out the door without another glance. So many thoughts plagued my brain waves. I side glanced at Ruby as I passed her, seeing the smile on her face was so wide I thought it was going to slide right off. I gave an awkward wave as I rushed to the elevator. Once inside, I drug my fingertips across my lips, remembering the way that kiss had felt. My eyes closed  as I let out a sigh. Seriously, what was I _really_ getting myself into?


	5. Surprise

I think I’m getting in too deep, I thought to myself as I slowly made my way up the long driveway that led to the front door of the Wayne Manor. What was I even thinking, being all flirty with Bruce Wayne? It wasn’t the same when we were in hero mode, in our costumes, our other lives. Was it his alter-ego that was bringing this out of me? Or maybe he was just keeping up his playboy appearance because it was what he knew. I sure as hell was not in a position within his life to see the real Bruce, which I had a sinking hunch actually _was_ Batman. He was dangerous ground; ground I couldn’t afford to get caught up in, not to mention Clark would absolutely kill both of us. What am I even saying? I’m acting as if Bruce actually likes me in _those_ terms. Enough with the teenage drivel, I am here to train, completely plutonic teacher to student training.

I paused in front of the door with my fist raised to knock. I took a deep breath, composing myself as I adjusted the strap of the gym bag on my shoulder. Today, I was going to be in complete Supergirl mode, I thought as I knocked on the door. Bruce’s butler, Alfred Pennyworth, answered the door with a smile as he stepped to the side to allow me entry.

“Miss Kara, such a pleasure to see you again. It has to have been, oh dear, what, ten years?” he said almost as surprised as I was.

“Wow, I guess you’re right, it has been ten years,” I said as he leaned in for a quick hug. I was a bit taken aback by this, but reciprocated the gesture. It still astonished me that such a sweet man raised Bruce Wayne. He obviously didn’t inherit many of Alfred’s traits through the years.

“Right this way,” He said as he led me through the manor. I had remembered being here only once prior when I accompanied Kal on a visit with Bruce. I also remembered Bruce chastising Kal for showing me where he lived. I smirked to myself at that particular thought. We rounded a corner which led to an expansive open space with punching bags, exercise equipment, weights, balance beams; absolutely everything you could possibly imagine a gym would have.

“Here we are, Miss Kara, I do believe Bruce is around here somewhere. If not, he’ll be with you momentarily; would you like a bottle of water?” he asked, always the eager, loyal servant.

“I’m sure I will need some; that would be amazing. Thank you, Alfred,” I said as he scurried off to retrieve the water. My eyes scanned the area for Bruce, and I spotted him as I rounded a nearby corner. He was suspended in the air supporting himself with his arms. His legs were curled underneath him as he let his body dip down and up repeatedly between the two bars, completely bare-chested. Supergirl mode, Supergirl mode, Supergirl mode, I repeated thoughtfully to myself.

“Nice…form,” I said with a wince. I honestly wouldn’t have been able to tell good form or not at that particular moment in time. I was more concentrated on the slew of scars littered across his torso and the beads of sweat dripping off his chiseled form. He jumped to the floor with a loud _thud_ , which snapped me back to reality. He grabbed a nearby towel and started dabbing his face and neck with it as he walked over to me.

“Is that what you’re planning on sparring in?” he said as he motioned to my current attire of a very loose fitting t-shirt that was almost down to my knees and a pair of jeans.

“Well, no, obviously not,” I answered with a wrinkle of my nose. He grabbed a bottle of water and pointed to his right.

“Bathroom’s that way. Chop, chop,” he said as he made his way to a large matted area to wait for me. I tried to change as fast as I could considering Bruce was in no mood to screw around. I whipped my hair up into a ponytail and nearly tripped my way out to the bathroom, trotting out to the mat to meet him.

“Ready?” he said as he took a stance, fists clenching at his sides. My eyebrows rose at his intensity.

“Right now? No introduction or-?” I asked quizzically as Bruce stared at me, deadpan.

“Did you want tea first?” he said mockingly, and with that, I threw the first punch that was instantly deflected. Back and forth, we went like this until he suddenly swept his leg behind my own and the back of my head met the mat. I laid there a moment, staring up at the ceiling while taking into account that I’d be halfway to the earth’s core if this were Doomsday or Darkseid that I was fighting.

“Get up Kara,” he said, pacing back and forth like a caged tiger. I groaned as I pushed myself to my feet with a defeated sigh, putting my hands on my hips. He noticed my frustration and walked up to me.

“What’s going on in that big alien brain of yours?” he asked.

“After all these years, I’m honestly wondering how I am still alive. I am being repeatedly floored by a grown rich man who dresses like a flying rodent because it matches his brooding undertones.” Bruce stared at me for a moment before letting out this peculiar sound that I had never heard escape his lungs. Laughter. Pure, full blown laughter. A smile crept across my lips as I watched him lean over to put his hands on his knees, unable to gain a breath. Alright, now this was getting a little weird, I thought.

“Bruce? Are you uh, you okay?” I said with a nervous snicker and suddenly, his leg whipped out and knocked me to the floor yet again, a low growl escaping my throat.

“Dammit!” I bellowed as his form was standing over top of my own. I peered up at him.

 “Brooding undertones, huh?” he said, looking down at me and I smirked before sweeping my own leg to collide with the backs of his, sending him to his back for once. I leaned my body overtop his and pressed down firmly on his forearms, peering down at him. Bruce looked a bit surprised.

“Merely an observation,” I said with a slight smile and then a familiar voice caused my gaze to move upward.

“Am I interrupting something?” the voice said. My mouth flew agape as I crawled off of Bruce, running fingers through my pony tail. Bruce tipped his head backward to peer at the owner of the voice before standing up.

“Kara?” the voice said.

“Dick,” Bruce responded and Dick Grayson didn’t bother to respond to Bruce just yet as he stepped closer to me.

“Well, you’ve certainly grown up,” Dick said to me as his eyes scanned my athletic wear.

“Look who’s talking,” I said to the former boy wonder who now protected the city streets of Bludhaven under the name of Nightwing. I hadn’t seen him since we were teenagers. I wasn’t kidding; he had grown up very nicely. Bruce slowly walked up to stand beside me, peering on at Dick. I had no clue what had transpired between these two over the years, but something told me a bit of bad blood festered.

“Bruce,” Dick said simply, giving Bruce a glance before looking back over at me with a smile. Bruce crossed his arms over his bare chest and squared off his jaw.

“To what do I owe this esteemed visit?” Bruce asked, peering on at Dick. Dick continued to look at me the entire time he responded.

“I was in town visiting a friend and thought I’d surprise you and Alfred, but in no way was I expecting to be surprised myself,” Dick said, flashing me his pearly whites. Well, wasn’t Dick Grayson a big ‘ol sweetie. I found myself digging my toe in the ground and curling my finger around my ponytail like a friggin’ schoolgirl. I felt Bruce’s gaze on me for a moment before he uncrossed his arms.

“Well, Kara and I were in the middle of a training session. Care to show her what a real spar should look like?” Bruce said as an imposing expression spread across his features. Dick’s gaze now moved to peer on at Bruce quizzically.

“You want to spar with me…right now?” he asked as Bruce smirked.

“What, afraid to be humiliated in front of your girlfriend?” Bruce’s eyebrows rose. It didn’t dawn on me until a few seconds later that he was referring to me, but Dick felt no need to dignify that statement with a response as he took off his jacket and moved to the mat with Bruce. Talk about getting your skirt in a bunch, I thought.

“Come on Lil Bird; show me how safe Bludhaven is,” Bruce taunted as Dick’s jaw clenched. Both men’s fists rose near their faces and the metaphorical bell dinged as the testosterone fest ensued. I watched as these two grown men threw punches left and right at one another. Occasionally, one connected and I winced as there didn’t seem to be any holding back from either party. Alfred walked through the doorway with several bottles of water cradled in his arms and his jaw dropped upon seeing Dick and Bruce fighting. Apparently, Dick must have snuck his way in, I thought.

“Master Richard?” Alfred said with astonishment. Dick looked over to Alfred with a smile and as Bruce hadn’t bothered to stop his fist in mid swing, it collided straight into Dick’s cheek. Both Alfred and myself idly gasped as both riled men stood panting.

“Bruce!” I found myself yelling as I stood dumbfounded, not knowing how to respond. I looked at Dick who didn’t seem all that surprised by his former father figure. Bruce shook his head at himself, looking only at Dick from the corners of his eyes.

“I’m sorry, I-I thought I taught you to not let your guard down, ever,” Bruce quickly used as an excuse. Dick smirked to himself as he rubbed his cheek.

“Yeah? And what happened to your rule of self-restraint?” he answered boldly in turn. Bruce let out a light grunt as he grabbed a nearby towel, walking away from the mat and towards Alfred.

“So…I’m guessing we are done for the day?” I asked, looking from Bruce to Dick and back again.

“We’ll pick this up at another time, when you’re less…distracted,” he said, glancing over his shoulder at Dick. Dick rubbed the back of his neck, raising a hand in an idle wave.

“Great to see you, Bruce. As usual,” Dick said as Bruce again let out a grunt and stormed off. My eyes grew wide as I looked to Alfred.

“Is he for real?” I asked, puzzled. Alfred just shook his head with a sigh, setting the bottles of water down while adjusting his tie.

“You know how he gets in his moods,” Alfred said before he was chasing off after a rather perturbed Bruce. I thought about that statement because, no, I actually _didn’t_ know about Bruce’s moods. In fact, there was very little I knew about Bruce himself, which made me uneasy. It made the prospect of him that much scarier and more risky. I glanced over at Dick who was still rubbing his neck; his eyes drooped to the floor. I could tell he was slightly embarrassed and walked over to him.

“So…I take it you and Bruce had a falling out at some point in the past 10 years?” I asked, folding my arms one over the other. Dick smirked as he looked down at me.

“I guess you could call it that. We didn’t exactly see eye to eye when I quit the Robin gig. Things just haven’t been the same between us ever since,” he said.

“Wow does he hold a grudge or what?” I said as Dick laughed lightly and pointed in the direction that Bruce had stalked off.

“We are talking about the same person right? Bruce Wayne? CEO, masked vigilante?” he said as I laughed, digging my toe into the floor again.

“Well, you know him far better than I, so I’ll take your word for it,” I said as I watched him dig a piece of paper from his pocket. He moved over to a side table that had a pen and began scribbling something on it before he handed it to me. I glanced down at it and saw that he was clearly giving me his phone number.

“Well, I’d really like the chance to get to know _you_ a little better Kara,” he said as I smiled to myself, folding the card up into my hand.

“I might just like that,” I said to him as he bent down to grab his jacket, slinging it back over his arms.

“Well, call or text me any time. We’ll make a plan,” he said and I thought it was incredibly sweet that he wasn’t making any preconceived notions that I’d even take him up on the offer just yet. He gave me an idle wave before he turned and walked away.

These past few weeks have been quite crazy for me. I’d assumed an alternative identity, established a cover at Wayne Enterprises with Bruce Wayne, Bruce and I bantered, flirted, and he even kissed me, even if it was fake; and now Dick Grayson had waltzed back into my life. I remembered developing a silly girl crush when I’d first met him as Robin when we were teens. I had changed so much since then. I’ve found out so many more things about myself that I didn’t even know existed when I was an uncorrupted, naïve girl. Maybe a dip back into my teenage years was just what I needed though.

I changed out of my athletic gear and let myself out since it seemed Alfred was still off talking with Bruce somewhere. As I stepped out the front door, shutting it behind me, I pulled the piece of paper with Dick’s phone number on it and my cell phone. I typed the number in with a grin before sending the following text message: “So are we meeting in our costumes or civvies?”


	6. Fuzzy

I took one final glance in the mirror as I spruced up my blonde locks and checked to make sure lipstick was not on my teeth. My hands adjusted “the girls” that were being pleasantly boosted by a Victoria’s Secret bra underneath my sleeveless, blue dress shirt. I turned around to look at my rear end in the skinny jeans that I picked out to wear this evening and nodded approval to myself at the tanned heels that completed the ensemble. My intercom buzzed as I grabbed my clutch and ran over to it, pressing the button to speak.

“Hey, I’ll be down in a minute.” I spoke into it as I gathered up my keys and began to lock the door behind me. I realized at that moment I’d forgotten to grab my stupid glasses and fumbled with the keys to quickly dash inside and grab them. I was to be Linda Danvers tonight, not Kara Zor-El. I supposed I had better clue Dick into that as well, I thought.  I headed out the front door to meet my date at the apartment building’s lobby area. I smiled as I saw Dick Grayson standing there clad in a long sleeved dress shirt and grey dress slacks. Seemed he got his sense of dress attire from the Bat, I thought.

“Well don’t you look dashing,” I remarked as I approached him. He ran a hand through his slightly long, ebony locks with a sheepish grin. I was sure I noticed a bit of red flushing his cheeks as well. Dick Grayson was modest, who knew.

“Thank you, though I don’t think anyone could even begin to hold a candle to you,” he said as I laughed and gave him a playful slap in the arm like we were in middle school.

“You’re too sweet,” I said as I hooked my arm within his, watching as his body stiffened for a moment.

“So where are we headed?” I asked as we walked out the lobby doors to the bustling streets of downtown Metropolis.

“Well, I wasn’t entirely familiar with restaurants in Metropolis but I did some research and made a reservation at this place I thought looked really nice. Hope you like Korean food,” he said as I made a ‘pssh” sound with my lips before answering.

“Um, who doesn’t?” I lied. Truth was, I’ve never had Korean food. In fact, I am more of a pizza and pasta kind of gal. Give me ALL the carbs. Seriously, wouldn’t you eat any and all the carbs you could if your genetic makeup made it so you didn’t gain pounds? I rest my case. That being said, I thought it was sweet that he took the time to research and not only find a place in my town, but also make a reservation ahead of time.

“Perfect, it’s about a mile and a half down the road; did you want me to call a cab?” he said as he looked down at my feet clad in those three-inch heels. I smirked as I made a muscle with one of my exposed arms.

“Girl of Steel, remember? That’ includes my feet,” I said as I winked at him. Dick grinned widely at my comment and rubbed the back of his neck.

“You’re something else entirely, Kara,” he said, making me remember that the alter-ego needed to be established.

“Oh, that reminds me. In civvies, I am Linda Danvers. My cousin…is Clark Kent,” I said, giving him another wink. He laughed, raising a hand to idly poke at the glasses on my face.

“I was wondering what the deal was with the glasses. Figured it might have just been a fashion statement,” he said and I rolled my eyes. He had no idea how much I actually loathed these things. It still astonished me that just a pair of glasses and a different demeanor had managed to disguise Clark all these years.

“Oh please, you can blame Clark for that one. He started the glasses trend. Poor eyesight runs in the family I guess,” I said, as we both shared a laugh, approaching the very, very Korean restaurant. I looked over at Dick who seemed to be practically solvating in anticipation. Meanwhile, I wondered if they offered chicken fingers on their menu. Wait, would they actually be chicken though, I thought.

We entered the restaurant and Dick gave his name to the host. I felt like I had been transported to South Korea as we were lead to a table near the back of the restaurant. One thing I did take notice of as we passed tables was that there wasn’t any silverware. Well this should be interesting, I thought. Dick held my chair out for me to sit down and helped me scoot in as my eyes immediately began to survey the menu. I pretended to know what I was looking at when in reality I could have ordered squid brains and have no idea that I had done on account of the names of everything in that menu. I idly peered over the top of my menu to watch Dick as his eyes narrowed in concentration.

“See anything you like?” he asked, glancing up at me and I snapped the menu shut, placing it atop the table in front of me. I hadn’t actually picked out anything.

“Yup!” I lied, leaning back in my chair with my arms folded over my chest. The waitress approached our table to ask if we were ready to order. I looked over at Dick, waiting for him to speak his order but, unfortunately, being the perfect gentleman that he is, he motioned for me to order first.

“I’ll have…whatever…he is having,” I said with a smile. Dick cleared his throat and leaned forward.

“Do you like…blood sausage?” he asked as my nose wrinkled in disgust, grabbing for my menu again.

“Um…I will not, be having what he is having um…” Quick, quick look at the pictures, I thought to myself. Dick smiled to himself as he looked up to the waitress.

“She’ll have the Galbi and I will have the Soondae,” he said, handing both our menus back to the waitress as she idly bowed her head to us. She then asked if we wanted any drinks. Dick looked over at me again.

“Did you want wine or anything, Linda?” he asked and my eyebrows rose to the sky, shaking my head.

“Oh no water is fine for me, thank you,” I said as he ordered the same since apparently, I wasn’t drinking. Once the waitress left I cocked my head at him.

“You can have drinks, Dick. I just don’t even bother to drink alcohol anymore because I could take out an entire liquor store and still not feel a buzz,” I laughed, not that I hadn’t tried before…trust me, I had. Dick laughed a little himself as he sat back in his chair, kneading his fingers into the corner of the wooden table.

“I guess I didn’t really think about that given your…well, you know,” he quickly corrected himself. I smiled at him, leaning forward before pressing both my forearms onto the table.

“It’s okay, why would you think about that?” I asked as a bit of an awkward silence fell upon us.

“You know, there’s apparently this bar in Metropolis that actually serves aliens. I’ve never been, but I have been very curious. Apparently, they have the means to guarantee any alien a proper buzz.” I looked at him, seeing if this would peek his interest.

“Really? I’d actually be able to witness your first drunken experience?” he said, his smile growing wider, apparently at the mere thought of this.

“Play your cards right tonight, Grayson, and I’ll take us there,” I said with a smile. I had always been curious about this place. Now was as good a time as any to test their claim. I hadn’t been on a date in years and had completely forgotten about the bar’s existence until the topic of alcohol arose.

Our food came and I was relieved to notice that he ordered me beef; thank anything that is Holy. I continued to embarrass myself, as I never had gotten the hang of eating with chopsticks. Dick tried to give me a quick lesson, but it turned out to be quite a messy experience. I opted to eat with my fingers since this place seriously did not have forks, not even in the back. I still think they hid them somewhere and just all laughed at how idiotic I looked trying to use the sticks as they “claimed” they didn’t have forks. After we finished and rose from our seats, I looked across the table at Dick with a smile.

“Shall we see what kind of drunk I am?” I asked, grabbing my clutch from the table and moving towards the door as Dick threw down some cash for the bill. He came up beside me and held the door open.

“I sincerely hope you’re not a mean drunk. Not sure if I could explain how things spontaneously caught on fire or froze.” I laughed, surprised that the Boy Wonder had some jokes hidden up his sleeve.

We walked for about half a mile down the road until we came to a very seedy looking alleyway at a corner of an intersection. This intersection was the only way that I knew it was the right alley. Dick looked around a bit uneasily.

“Are you sure this is the right way?” he asked me as I started to walk down the alley.

“It is a bar that serves aliens, Dick. It is meant to be hidden. Don’t worry; I’ll protect you if someone tries to mug us.” I smiled at him over my shoulder and he shook his head at me, following.  We approached a metal slab that had a small slit in the door and I gave it a knock. The slit disappeared and two bright yellow eyes peered through it. I spoke a few words in Kryptonian and a few moments later, the door opened to pulsating techno music. I stepped in, looking over my shoulder at Dick who still seemed very hesitant. I couldn’t blame him; he was certainly going to be the minority here. The same yellow-eyed alien put a hand up to stop us.

“Kryptonian, what is he?” I looked over at Dick and then back at the alien bouncer.

“Human, but he is with me.” The alien nodded waving us in. This place was outright bizarre. I had never seen so many different species of aliens under one roof before. Some were in their alien form and others either were shifted to look human or were half-and-half. I looked over at Dick, nudging him with my elbow.

“Doing okay?” I asked him and he looked over at me with a smile.

“Yeah, this is just pretty wild,” he said, both of us having to raise our voices to hear over the bass of the music. Dick then motioned towards the bar and we both approached it. The bartender, who had six arms, looked at us both as he flipped bottles and shakers, making use of every single hand he had.

“What species?” he asked. I was thrown off guard as I pointed to myself and then Dick.

“Kryptonian and…human.” The bartender nodded and a few minutes later, he slammed two tumblers down, one in front of either of us.

“Scotch and the strongest concoction I got. You’re going to need it, Kryptonian,” he said with a laugh as I arched an eyebrow to the drink that honestly looked just like Mountain Dew. Dick and I both picked up our drinks and held them up, ready to toast.

“To you finally being able to get a buzz,” Dick said with a sly smile. I laughed and cleared my throat.

“I’ll drink to that, and here’s hoping it actually works,” I said as we clunked our glasses together. Dick took a good sip of his Scotch while I tossed back all of my drink. The bartender’s mouth fell open as he saw me consume all of the contents. Dick noticed this and eyed me warily.

“Um, Linda, remember that’s not human made liquor…,” he said as I started to feel a little…I don’t know, fuzzy? My lips even felt a little numb, I felt…well, amazing. A huge grin spread across my face as I stumbled backward a little. Dick immediately stepped forward to grab my forearm and I laughed as I slammed my drink on the bar top.

“Keep these coming, good sir!” I said as Dick eyed me with a look of concern. I leaned forward and used my hand to circle around his expression.

“None of this. I’m fine.” Dick laughed as he grabbed our next round of drinks and motioned with his head towards a table.

“Maybe we should sit down for the rest of this escapade,” he said as I nodded in agreement, plopping myself into the booth.

“So tell me how much do _you_ hate Bruce?” I asked rather suddenly. It caught Dick off guard as he laughed, swigging down the rest of his drink before moving onto the next one.

“I don’t hate him per say…I mean he was practically my father. He can just be a little overbearing,” he said, playing with the rim of his glass as my arm flew into the air and then my hand slapped down to the table, which made Dick laugh again.

“Oh my god, right?! He’s all, ‘I don’t trust you because you so desperately want me to,’ or, ‘The dog doesn’t even like her,’ or, ‘Women just fall at my feet because I’ve got a bajillion dollars.’ Well, he never said that last one, but you know he thinks it!” I said, all the while imitating Bruce’s gravely deep voice. Dick stared on at me a little dumbfounded and I realized maybe I’d spoken out of turn or that I’d spoken a little too excitedly. Okay, note to self:  alcohol equates to loose lips, I thought and decided that talking was not my best option. Dick adjusted in his seat as if he were about to respond to my stammers and I leaped from my chair, grabbing Dick’s arm.

“This is my favorite song of all time!” I said, and it actually wasn’t. I was honestly not all that sure what the song even was. Some dancier version of ‘Fear The Reaper’ maybe? I just needed an excuse to avoid talking. I watched Dick’s eyes grow wide as I drug him out onto the dance floor.

“I’m not really much of a dancer,” he started to say, but soon realized any attempts at avoiding it were futile, especially when dealing with a woman with super strength. I started to bee bop around to the music as I watched Dick remain almost motionless, as if he truly had no clue what to do, and at one point, he just stood there watching me. The song soon melted into a much slower rhythm as I sauntered up to Dick, wrapping my arms around his neck. I said I sauntered, but it was more of a tripping sort of glide and my arms wrapped around Dick’s neck were about all that was holding me up now. He laughed at me as he wrapped one of my arms across his shoulders and wrapped one of his own arms about my waist.

“Let’s get you home, light weight,” he said as we shuffled our way out the front door. A puff of air escaped from my torso that I now know to be what humans describe as a ‘burp’. I would have been embarrassed if I were cognitive enough at the time to realize I had done it, but Dick did nothing but laugh at me. Once we approached my apartment building, I spun around on my heel and placed a hand on my hips.

“I had a wonderful time. I’d really like to see you again,” Dick said to me with a sheepish grin. I smiled, leaning forward to kiss him without as much as a hint of hesitation. Dick’s eyebrows shot up as he kissed me back. When I pulled away, I idly started to tap my lips with my fingers. Fortunately, my drunken stupor would account for this odd behavior in Dick’s eyes. The reality was, I had been checking for that same tingly feeling I had gotten when Bruce ‘fake kissed’ me, only to realize it wasn’t there. I removed my keys from my clutch and glanced upward before looking back at him seeing if he got the hint.

“Do you…want to come up?” Dick looked like he had just been slapped in the face as his hands went up like a pair of catcher’s mitts.

“Oh no, I mean-, not that I wouldn’t want to or that I-I mean, I definitely find you attractive enough, it’s just that-,” he said as he laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck. I stared on at him, witnessing this inward battle with himself as my eyes went in and out of consciousness.

“I wouldn’t feel right given your current…state. I will definitely take a rain check though,” he said and I placed a hand over my heart before giving his shoulder a shove. A shove that was a little harder than I intended.

“Aww, you are so sweet, Richard Grayson,” I said and he smiled as he absently rubbed his shoulder.

“Goodnight Kara,” he said and leaned in to give my cheek a kiss. I smiled back at him before letting myself into my apartment building. Once I entered my apartment and locked the door behind me, my body collapsed onto my living room couch with a groan. I was out cold.


	7. Red

Is it physically possible to wake up with an actual railroad spike embedded in your skull and still live to speak about it? Well that’s how I felt this particular morning as I slowly sat up on my couch with a groan. I wiped what I hoped was caked saliva from the side of my face, glancing down to see the same clothes I had on when I went on that date with Grayson last night. Okay, wow, I must have just slept on my couch all night, I thought. I raised a hand to my head with a grimace as I slowly regained my bearings. My eyes blinked a few times when I glanced at the digital clock on the kitchen counter. That clock is funny saying that it is 10:15 in the morning, ha! I thought. I grabbed my cell phone from the nearby table to see that the time matched what was on my clock and my eyes grew wide as I leaped from the couch. This was another one of those moments in life that I was thankful for having superpowers even under the most mundane of circumstances. I super sped through my shower, brushed my teeth, changed my clothes and did not stop this super speed until I was in the lobby of my apartment building. Think anyone would notice if I flew to Wayne Enterprises? Ugh, okay fine, of course they would!

By the time I actually made it to Wayne Enterprises, it was almost noon and I could only imagine the beef I was going to get from Bruce over this and then some. The elevator seemed to be in a perpetual state of upward motion as I ran through the doors once they opened. As I passed Ruby, I gave her a nervous wave before approaching the big, mean pair of all too familiar doors. I gave a light knock, clearing my throat and began to slowly creak the door open. There he was in all his cocky glory; an eyebrow slowly rose as he peered up at the door as my head poked in. He glanced at his watch and then back up at me as I slid all the way in, shutting the door behind me.

“So, Mr. Wayne, I can explain,” I began, the sun seeming exceptionally bright in his office today as I raised a hand to shield my eyes. Bruce’s eyebrows rose as he studied me questioningly.

“Mr. Wayne? Wow, this must be some explanation to start it so properly. Too bright in here for you? Was such a beautiful day outside, thought I’d revel in it a bit,” He said with as smug of a grin as I imagined he could. My eyes began to narrow as I most assuredly began to smell a rat.

“Dick already told you, didn’t he?” I asked and he smiled broadly, interlacing his hands behind his head and leaned back in his chair.

“You know I got the oddest text from him this morning, which was at 7:00 a.m., by the way…apologizing on _your_ behalf today if you were in fact late, but he didn’t give me the foggiest clue as to why you _would_ be late,” he said, loving every single minute of having the ball hovering eternally in his court. I groaned as I sulked down in the chair across from his desk, putting my head in my hand. I let out a huff before deciding to just admit it.

“Fine, fine, okay…I have…a hangover. Like, a major, Doomsday sized hangover,” I stated as the sudden smell of bacon filled my nostrils and made me almost want to hurl. I lifted my gaze from my hands to see Bruce fiddling with what looked like a breakfast sandwich from some fast food joint and I furrowed my eyebrows.

“Since when do you eat junk food, Mr. Eight Pack?” I asked, noticing he hadn’t even taken a bite of said sandwich. He glanced down to the breakfast food and then back at me rather innocently.

“Oh, since this morning actually, I just had a hankering for one all the sudden, it was the strangest thing. Do you want a bite?” he asked, holding the sandwich out towards me. My hand rose to block my nose from the smell as I got up to walk away. Bruce started to laugh as he tossed the sandwich into the wastebasket.

“This isn’t funny, Bruce, how long does this sickness and remorse last?” I asked with all seriousness and he canted his head at me.

“You know, when Dick told me that you actually got drunk last night, I did not believe him for a second but here is the living, breathing, sickly proof that a Kryptonian actually _can_ get a hangover. Incredibly amusing I have to say. I’d have paid money to see that,” he said as I could only roll my eyes at him, waving him off with a flick of my wrist.

“Wasn’t much to see, I pretty much just made a complete idiot of myself and will not be doing it… _ever_ …again.” I said as I firmly crossed my arms over my chest. Bruce smirked at my comment tapping his finger atop the desk.

“That’s what we all say,  yet that is never the case. Ever,” he said with a smile. His thoughts were interrupted as Ruby’s voice bellowed from the intercom.

“Mr. Wayne, there is a delivery here for Ms. Danvers; is it alright if I send them into your office for her?” Ruby asked as Bruce rose a single eyebrow, looking over to me.

“Are you expecting anything?” he asked me and I slowly shook my head, having no clue what the delivery could be.

“Go ahead and send them in Ruby,” he replied as he rose from his desk to walk to his office doors. His entire body was stiff as if he were expecting a huge Jack-in-the-Box to appear and explode once it landed inside his office. Instead, three men walked in, each holding a vase with what had to have been two dozen red roses in each. My mouth dropped as I watched the roses roll in and placed on Bruce’s desk. One of the deliverymen held out a digital signing pad for me to sign for the delivery and I stood frozen and dumbfounded. Bruce walked over to one of the vases that had a card and yanked it from its holder; this action jolted me back to reality.

“Hey! That’s my note!” I yelped, lurching forward to grab it from him, his arm raising the note into the air out of my reach. He started to read it, aloud:

“I hope your first hangover was worth it, Babe, and that these flowers brighten your-,” he was cut off as I had floated into the air to grab the note from his hand and floated back down, clutching it to my chest. Bruce slowly turned to look at me, as mild disgust swept across his features.

“Babe? Red roses? Must have been one hell of a night,” Bruce said as his jaw squared off a bit. I looked down at the note to confirm they were for sure from Dick and yes, of course they were; who else would it have been?

“Pssh, it didn’t even get that far,” I said to myself as my eyes widened, realizing that I said those words aloud. Bruce’s face was frozen in complete surprise before he lifted a hand to rub at the back of his neck.

“Why does it matter if they’re red or not anyway?” I asked suddenly, realizing he didn’t just say roses, but specifically their color category.

“Every man should know what the different colors of roses represent-red being passion/ love- not the smartest move to give after the first date. Unless, as I said, it was one _hell_ of a night,” he repeated, eyeing me warily to see if I’d dish out any additional dirt. I rolled my eyes, figuring Bruce would find any means necessary to emasculate Dick at any cost.

“You know, even if it was that kind of night, it’d really be none of your business, Bruce. I think the roses were a very sweet touch,” I said matter of factly as I removed my cell phone to thank Dick for the gesture.

“Is that what women are calling cliché’s now a days? ‘Sweet’?” he asked. I could feel his eyes burning a hole in the top of my head, watching me as I texted, a smile played on my lips. I looked up at him, pretending I didn’t hear his fleeting comment.

“Oh, what did you say? I didn’t hear you because I was saying yes to another date this Saturday night with Dick Grayson,” I said, giving him a smug smile. He stood from his desk, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“You’ll have to reschedule. If you would’ve actually shown up on time this morning, I could have informed you before you made any plans,” he said as I looked around me confused.

“Why would I need to reschedule? We don’t come into the office on weekends,  or at least _I’m_ sure not!” I said, getting rather defensive as he slid a flyer in front of me on the desk. I leaned forward to read that it said, ‘Wayne Foundation Children’s Hospital Charity Ball’. I looked up at him still confused.

“Okay, so your foundation’s millionth charity ball is this Saturday. Nothing new there, what has this got to do with me?” I asked as he took a seat at the corner of his desk.

“I need you to come with me as my plus one. I suspect there may be some key players from our previous Gigante encounter. More than likely, they’ll be under cover and I’d rather the night go off without a hitch as it tends to effect the money that’s donated,” he said to me, pausing for effect as I waited for him to get to the point of still, what it had to do with _me_.

“I need your super hearing. I could wear audio enhancers but they still can’t compare to the decibel and range your ears can work,” he said as I looked at him with mild amusement. My hands crossed over my chest as I sat forward in my chair.

“So, you need me huh? What’s in it for me?” I asked as Bruce folded his own arms over his chest.

“I forget about the fact that you came in four hours late because you got overly intoxicated last night; you keep your job, and you get a free, very expensive dress,” he said sternly, his gaze not faltering as if he were attempting to use mind powers to get me to agree. Wait, maybe that was the trick up his sleeve, maybe Bruce Wayne was a telepath!

“You just love backing me into a corner, don’t you?” I ask, taking out my cell phone to text Dick back about rescheduling our date with a frown. Bruce smiled to himself as he made his way back to the other side of his desk. I deleted the first three attempts that I texted out, all of which mentioned why I was rescheduling. I decided on the fourth attempt at the text to state simply: “I’m sorry but we will have to reschedule our date for Saturday. Something came up for work; you know…the other kind of work. ;)” and I pressed send. I felt a little bad that I didn’t tell him about the ball with Bruce, but I just didn’t feel like dealing with the drama that would undoubtedly ensue. At least that’s what I’d continue to tell myself. I put the cell phone back in my purse and peered across the desk at Bruce.

“There, done.  There had better be dancing at this thing, at least,” I scoffed as I adjusted the glasses on my nose.

“It’s a ball, there’s _always_ dancing,” he said sarcastically, and he had a point, I probably should have known that.

“Let me guess, too cool for school, Bruce Wayne wouldn’t be caught dead dancing at these things,” I grumbled and rolled my eyes.

“Quite the contrary, I’m a regular Fred Astaire,” he retorted, which perked my interest, but I attempted hide that.

“Now, go get some coffee- take the equivalent of Kryptonian pain killers and go sleep it off. Be in the office at 7 am tomorrow, sharp. Got it?” he said, completely taking me off guard as I slowly realized he was letting me go home because I didn’t feel good. I remembered a quote from The Grinch that said, “And his heart grew three sizes that day.” Bruce cleared his throat, which jolted me back to reality.

“You better go before I change my mind,” he said, motioning to the door with his head. I leaped up at that comment and started scurrying towards the office.

“Ms. Danvers, you going to leave these here?” he said, referring to the roses. I smirked over my shoulder.

“Keep ‘em. You could use a little of the color red in your life,” I said before whisking myself out the door, refusing to let him have the last word.


	8. Waltz

It was Saturday afternoon and I was walkingup the long cobblestone walkway that led to the front door of the Wayne Manor. I still couldn’t believe I was about to appear publicly amidst hundreds of people as Bruce Wayne’s “date”. You could never undo a reputation addition like that, but I was sure I could think of far worse rumors that could be spread about me. As I approached the door, my pace began to slow as I heard a verbal confrontation of sorts occurring on the other side of the door. I stopped and turned my head to the side so that my super hearing could pick up more.

I overheard Bruce yelling at Alfred saying, “You have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. It is strictly business, and has been from the beginning.”

I made a face, as I was insanely curious as to what exactly he was talking about and edged my body closer to the door. Alfred replied, “Master Bruce, I am simply informing you what I observed, as I would like to think, after all these years, I know you rather well. Perhaps, even more than you know yourself.”

My face contorted in on itself and my head was almost completely pressed against the door as Bruce said, “I think you’ve lost a bit of your mind in your age, old man.”

He said this just before the door was suddenly whipped open and I stood straight at attention, pushing some of my hair behind my ear in an effort to act innocent. Bruce looked at me quizzically as I cleared my throat, pointing idly at the doorframe.

“These hinges look a little flimsy; you might want to have someone take a look at that,” I managed to blurt before brushing past him in an effort to avoid the impending question of how much of that conversation I had heard.

“So what am I wearing for this little shindig? I’ve got two hours to make myself look like something you’d attach to your arm for a night,” I stated as I crossed my arms over my chest. Bruce still looked at me quizzically as he started for the stairs, motioning for me to follow him. I obliged, glancing over my shoulder at Alfred who shook his head with a sigh. Bruce led me into what I had assumed was a guest bedroom. He pointed to the closet where a garment bag hung. I eyed it suspiciously, as I walked over to unzip the bag and reveal the most gorgeous, pale yellow, satin dress I have ever seen. I did everything I could possibly do to avoid my jaw dropping to my toes as I removed the bag to view the dress in all of its prettiness.

“Bruce, this is…wow, I seriously couldn’t possibly accept this. This had to have cost a fortune and just for the sake of a cover.” I ran my hand delicately down the dress as if it’d break from me simply touching it. Bruce smirked as he walked over with his hands placed firmly in his pockets.

“Did you seriously just bring up how much something _cost_ to me, Kara? My dates wouldn’t show up wearing JC Penney. Consider it an advanced ‘Thank You’ gift,” he said as he surveyed my expression. I could not retain the smile that spread broadly across my face as I stood on my tippy toes to remove the hanger from the doorframe and draped the dress over my arms.

“Did you know my favorite color was yellow or was that sheer luck?” I asked, eyeing him curiously. Bruce looked behind him and then back to me before pointing to myself.

“Oh I’m sorry, have we been introduced? I’m Bruce Wayne, also known as Batman, The Dark Knight, The Caped Crusader, and The World’s Greatest Detective,” he said as he raised his eyebrows at me. I rolled my eyes and idly hit him in the arm as I passed him.

“You can be such a brat,” I said as I made my way to the bathroom. Bruce smirked as he moved for the exit to the room.

“I’m rich, comes with the territory,” he said with a lopsided grin before exiting. I looked at myself in the mirror as I held the dress up to my body. It really was one of the most beautiful dresses I had ever seen, I thought. This night might actually not turn out that bad after all. At least I was going to feel like a Barbie doll the entire time, right? I spent the next hour and a half fixing my hair and make-up and slipped on the dress as the final addition. I spun myself in the mirror view and smiled to my reflection. This dress was sure to give someone a heart attack tonight with the plunging back that didn’t stop until it reached about an inch above my tail bone. I gave my wavy blonde locks one last tussle before I headed down the stairs where Bruce and Alfred were already waiting for me. How did he know I was coming down the stairs at that exact moment? I swore this man was a telepath and I stuck to my case. He tried to hide it, but Bruce’s eyes widened as he caught sight of me and I could hear his heart began to pick up pace which made me smile.

“So do I look convincing enough to be seen with Bruce Wayne in public?” I asked directly to Alfred, leaving Bruce to roll up his tongue from the floor. You know those old cartoons where the wolf had to roll his eyes and tongue back up after seeing a pretty gal? That’s what I had been picturing.

“Bruce Wayne? You look convincing enough to be seen with Oliver Queen!” Alfred exclaimed and I laughed at his joke, more than likely sparked from their little spat they had earlier. Bruce furrowed his eyebrows at his butler.

“Really, Al?” he asked as Alfred held up his hands in mock defense with a light chuckle. I reached into my clutch bag to remove the fake glasses and slid them over my face. Had to keep up my Linda Danvers appearance, ball or no ball. Bruce moved to the door and opened it, motioning for me to exit. I frowned up at him as I passed.

“What, we’re not taking the Batmobile? I always wondered what it was like to ride in that thing,” I mused as Bruce just shook his head and waited for Alfred to follow us at the rear. We waited for a few moments before Alfred pulled an expensive looking black car in front of us. I couldn’t even begin to tell you what kind of car it was; all I knew is that it was expensive and shiny.

We arrived at the entrance to the charity ball where the event was in full swing. Spotlights swirled in the sky, the music blared, and dozens of very well dressed rich people filed into the entrance with their checkbooks at the ready. Alfred opened the car door for Bruce who then walked around to my side of the car and opened my own door with a hand outstretched to me. I took his hand and pulled myself from the car, suddenly feeling a bit overwhelmed as a hundred flashes went off from nearby cameras. Bruce interlaced our arms as he began to walk us down the entrance carpet and then he leaned in towards me.

“You really do look amazing in that dress,” he said, as my face beamed, looking up at him. This interaction made the flashing progress rapidly, which made me wonder if he said it at that point in time purely for the cameras or if he actually meant to compliment me. Before I could think any further on the subject, we entered the establishment and people pining to speak with him immediately engulfed Bruce. I suddenly felt like I was the size of an ant as his arm left mine to shake hands. I awkwardly crossed my arms over my chest before seeing a tray of champagne walk past me. I grabbed a flute and immediately brought it to my lips. Not that the alcohol would subdue my nerves, but at least it gave my hands something to do so I didn’t look so pathetic. Once Bruce was able to start moving to the side of the crowd, he idly touched my arm and led me over to a quiet spot. He leaned in again, that deep rumbly voice speaking to me in a low tone.

“Time to go to work. We will split up. Act as if you’re interested in the jewelry on the other side of the room that is up for auction. If you need to talk to me, just speak lowly and I should be able to hear you,” he said as he idly motioned to the device in his ear. I nodded in response before getting on my tippy toes to give him a kiss on the cheek. His entire body stiffened as he looked down at me.

“Business doesn’t usually get a kiss on the cheek,” he said, stifling a grin.

“A date would. Wouldn’t want to blow our cover,” I said with a smirk before turning and heading over to where the jewelry displays were. I didn’t have to pretend that I was interested, considering diamonds really were a girl’s best friend, human or not. How could any woman not love something that sparkles and glitters? An elderly woman noticed my interest and extended her hand to me. I shook it with a smile.

“I do not believe I have seen you at one of these events before,” the woman said as I took an idle sip of my champagne.

“Danvers. Linda Danvers, I am here with Bruce Wayne,” I said as her face looked like she just realized why the color of the sky was blue.

“Ah, Mr. Wayne, of course. You wouldn’t be interested in placing a bid on one of these lovely, expensive pieces then would you?” she asked and I most certainly did not appreciate her tone. She was insinuating that I was here as a piece of tail for Mr. Wayne and had no business mixing with the rich folk. My eyes narrowed before I smiled, picking up the pen for the bid counts.

“Actually, Mr. Wayne sent me over to make a bid on his behalf,” I said smiling as widely as I possibly could at the woman before brushing my way past her. There’s no way he’d actually win the thing right? I started to make my way through the crowd, perking my ears at anything that could seem out of the ordinary. Aside from the slew of men cheating on their wives at this particular juncture, there wasn’t anything else askew. Suddenly, I heard a hushed conversation that seemed like it was in another room from the one everyone was gathered in. I stopped in my tracks to focus in on those particular voices, drinking my champagne to hide my focus.

“Are you sure this is gonna do, Boss? There’s a lot of people here. What if the Bat shows up?” the male voice said.

“It’ll be fine; we just need to blend in. We already got past the hard part of sneaking these things in,” the other male voice said. I idly slid the glasses down the bridge of my nose to use my x-ray vision. I spotted two human bodies in a room on the next level to the building. I started taking note of the items they were concealing before skin touching my arm caused me to jump, nearly knocking my glasses off my face. I turned to see a middle-aged man with two drinks in either of his hands; a man that I hadn’t the foggiest clue of who he was.

“I am so sorry I didn’t mean to startle you like that. My name is Simon Stagg. I saw you from across the room and I just had to approach you,” he said with an overly confident and positively, putrid grin. I am pretty sure a bit of vomit came up in my mouth as I gave a nervous laugh.

“You flatter me. I am actually here with someone though,” I said, immediately turning in an attempt to start looking for Bruce who I’m sure had to have been hearing this conversation by now. The man moved his imposing form in my way as my jaw squared.

“Oh but the night is so young and I grabbed you a drink,” he said, as I eyed the drink he held out to me. Did this spiel actually work on women? No doubt, the drink was laced with some form of drug. I fought every impulse to teach that guy a lesson right there and then, but didn’t want to reveal to everyone in the room that Supergirl was present. It was so tempting; I could knock him across the room, I could singe his eyebrows off, freeze his-,my thought process was interrupted when I felt a familiar, calloused hand pressing to the small of my bared back.

“I see you met my date, Ms. Danvers. Pleasure to see you again, Simon,” Bruce said with a tone as smooth as silk. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel relief. Apparently, even Supergirl needed rescuing now and again.

“Ah, Bruce…had no idea _this_ was yours,” he said, as my eyes grew as wide as saucers. My form took a step forward as Bruce’s hand grabbed at my waist to stop me.

“The next time I see you drug another champagne glass, Simon, I’ll make your life a living hell,” Bruce said sternly, more than clearly defending my honor, which was an estranged feeling. Simon was about to defend himself before Bruce grabbed both of the champagne flutes and tossed them into a nearby plant. He tugged at my arm as we moved to the dance floor. I barely had enough time to hand off my flute to a passing waiter before Bruce spun me around and yanked me to his chest. I let out a small grunt as Bruce completely took the lead and we started what I assumed was some kind of…waltz?

“So, did you find out anything?” Bruce said, back to business.

“I did actually,” I replied, and just as I was about to explain, Bruce suddenly dipped me and brought me back up in one fluid motion. Okay, he wasn’t kidding. Fred Astaire indeed. I pulled myself further into him as the music slowed, clutching to his shoulders so I could speak directly into his ear.

“I overheard two men talking and it seemed like they are prepping to steal. I didn’t have time to hear their plan but I also saw they were armed with pistols, possibly more,” I said as Bruce dipped his head into the nape of my neck, speaking lowly.

“Would you be able to identify them if you saw them?” he asked and I nodded in response.

“I wouldn’t have to see them; I can just look for anyone armed in the room. How the hell do you know how to dance like this by the way?” I asked and he smiled at me.

“I am trained in over a dozen forms of martial arts. Plus, what billionaire playboys do you know that don’t know a waltz or two?” he stated as I paused a moment to actually consider that question. He then spun me around one last time, letting go of my hand, which was a clear indication that it was time to get back to work again. I ran a hand through my hair as I adjusted the glasses on my face to use my x-ray vision. It took a few moments to scan through the oodles of bodies littering the floor, but I finally spotted the guns. I could also hear an increased pulse rate emanating from these particular bodies which was a clear indicator that things were about to go down. I slid the glasses back up my nose and spoke lowly to myself.

“Bruce,” I stated, pausing to see him idly glancing at me from my peripheral vision.

“On your six. Time to suit up,” I stated as he gave me a light nod and we both disappeared from the floor. I returned in mere moments as one of the men jumped up onto a table, spraying bullets from an assault rifle into the glass ceiling above. Glass crashed down everywhere as the crowd shrieked in horror.

“Alright everyone, listen up! All of your valuables into the bag, and no one has to die!” the man yelled and I flew to land right in front of him. The man looked at me before he began to laugh, looking over at his partner.

“Clyde, we was worried about the Bat and we got ourselves the blonde Super one,” he said as I crossed my arms over my chest.

“Oh you should be worried Clyde…you got _both_ of us,” I said, timing it just perfectly for Batman’s entrance as he came crashing through one of the already broken ceiling panels before landing with a light thud on the floor beside me. It was incredible the way his presence had an effect on people. Dark, mysterious, imposing, and downright bone chilling.

“Put your weapons down,” Batman’s voiced boomed as I stood for effect, ready to throw some bodies into walls if the situation called for it. I watched as the men hesitated, looking at each other with confusion.

“Be smart about this. I’m fast. He’s smart. I’m bulletproof and he may as well be. Your chances look slim boys,” I said to them before one of them suddenly disappeared in front of our very eyes. Batman looked over to me with a grimace.

“He must have taken the serum. Go after him, I’ll take care of this one,” Batman affirmed as I immediately sped off in search of the runner. I stopped upstairs, glancing around me and used my super hearing to detect any signs of his location. I picked up a faint hint of a scuffle in an adjacent room as I super sped to see a broken glass case with a red velvet pillow. My eyebrows furrowed as I walked further into the room; suddenly, the man reappeared out of nowhere and I felt a sharp pain eradiate from my side just before my body plummeted to the floor. The man stood over top of me heaving and in shock before he ran away. I lay there, unable to move and bleeding heavily. There could be only one explanation for my sudden situation: kryptonite.


	9. Recover

I lay there, staring up at the ceiling as I struggled to turn and look at the object that was embedded in my side. It looked like a dagger of some kind and no doubt had the kryptonite stones lodged within it that were mistaken for emeralds. My vision started to get a bit fuzzy and my hearing went in and out with waves of volume. I suddenly heard a familiar voice getting closer and closer as I turned my eyes to peer up at the dark figure now looming over me.

“Supergirl!” Bruce yelled as he knelt down by me on the floor. I struggled to even speak. We Kryptonians have these amazing powers but shove a green rock at us and we become instant mashed potatoes.

“K..ry…p..to..n-,” I began to say and didn’t have enough energy to even finish my statement before I felt the dagger suddenly being dislodged from my side as I let out a gasp of pain.

“Stay with me,” Bruce said as he snapped his fingers in front of my face.

“I’ll be right back,” he said as he placed a hand momentarily on my shoulder. I turned on my undamaged side to watch Bruce go to work on the two goons. The one that had stabbed me was cowering in a corner of the hallway; the serum having obviously worn off, otherwise he would’ve been trying to disappear I’d imagined. Bruce lurched forward, grabbing the man by his shirt collar.

He peered over the railing to the floor below before grabbing the device from his utility belt that launched a grappling hook. He attached a D-ring to the man’s belt before shooting the grappling hook toward a gargoyle statue near the entrance on the first floor. The man was suddenly propelled over the railing with a shriek to the floor below, temporarily suspended above the floor. I saw the other man run past me towards Bruce’s back, his pistol at the ready. My eyes widened as I tried to sit up.

“Batman!” I cried out in warning, which made Bruce spin around in time to barrel roll to the right, dodging the bullet the man shot at him. The man continued to shoot every bullet that remained at Bruce who deflected or dodged every single one of them. His form edged closer to the man before the gun’s bullets ran dry and the trigger made a light clicking sound. The man looked at the empty gun in horror before launching it at Bruce. Bruce dodged the gun and responded in kind with a fisted swing at the man’s right temple. The man blocked the first shot, much to my surprise, and a fistfight ensued, well, a short one that is. At some point amidst the struggle, Bruce had wound a cord around the man’s torso and shot another grappling hook towards the entrance on the first floor. The man launched into the air to join the other man, both now hanging in the air from the statue. Bruce’s attention returned to me. As he walked over, he pressed his fingers to the side of his cowl speaking aloud.

“Gordon, I have two assailants strung up at the entrance to the charity ball,” was all he said before I felt strong-arms sliding under my body to pick me up off the floor. I wrapped my arms around his neck with a grimace. He pressed a button on his utility belt before he walked me over to a nearby window. Within moments, a black plane hovered just outside the window. I had assumed said plane was the Batplane or was it Batwing? In either case, Bruce released the hatch and delicately placed me inside before hopping in himself. He sighed before he pressed the side of his cowl again, speaking,

“Clark, meet me at S.T.A.R. Labs. Kara is injured,” he said before quickly releasing the button in his cowl as to not give Clark enough time to question anything. We flew off into the night and arrived at S.T.A.R. Labs in what seemed mere moments. I was dipping in and out of consciousness as I felt arms lifting me out of the plane. I heard Kal’s voice and the sound of feet pounding upon pavement.

“What the hell happened?!” Kal yelled. He was in his hero garb and I saw his hand slam into Bruce’s chest as he pulled me into his own arms. Bruce held either of his hands up, squaring off his jaw to the shove Kal inflicted upon him. Kal proceeded to rush me into the lab where a man in a long, white coat was waiting and prepared. Bruce followed us in, making sure to stay back and out of the way. Kal gently placed me into a device that was eradiating concentrated rays of yellow sunlight. Suddenly, Kal turned around and shoved a hand at Bruce…again.

“I asked you a question,” he said, as Bruce peered on at him.

“Supergirl and I were working undercover. One of thieves attempted to steal a jeweled dagger which happened to be laced with kryptonite,” he said simply, standing firm in his stance to leave these two large and intimidating men standing toe to toe with one another.

“Working…undercover? Since when are the two of you a team?!” Kal bellowed as he now began to pace back and forth like a caged lion.

“I needed assets capable of listening for any sense of clues  that the charity ball was to be robbed. You’d be surprised how often it happens and this was the first opportunity I had to borrow a Kryptonian’s particular set of skills. I’d have asked you, but she looks better in a dress.” Kal was all but fuming at that point as he stopped directly in front of Bruce again.

“You two were…on…a _date_?” he asked as Bruce remained motionless and unflinching.

“It was strictly…business,” he stated and I saw Bruce glance over to me, a slight hint of empathy laced over his lips. Kal shook his head and placed his hands on hips.

“What the hell were you thinking? She could have been killed!” Kal bellowed as Bruce’s gaze returned to him.

“She’s a big girl, Superman. I’ve told you before, in certain aspects, her genealogy has made her even more powerful than you are. Maybe you should let her explore that more,” he stated as Kal’s fists clenched at his sides.

“Just get out of here, Batman. And if I hear… _anything_ about you trying to pull a stunt like this again with her, I’ll throw you through a building,” Kal said, raising an imposing finger into Bruce’s face for further affirmation.

“I’m not her keeper and neither are you. She’s going to do what she wants, but, for what it’s worth…I’m sorry,” he said before he gave me one last glance and disappeared into the night. My eyebrows furrowed, having heard this entire exchange and I lifted a hand up to Kal.

“Superman,” I called out. It was so weird having to call your super hero friends and family by their super names when unknowing ears were within shot. Kal walked over to me and took my hand.

“Don’t be so hard on him. I made my choice the day I decided to slap this symbol on my chest and do what you do,” I said to him weakly as he ran a hand soothingly over my head and hair with a light _shoosh_ sound.

“We will talk about this later,” is all he said before I let the unconsciousness completely sweep over me and allowed the warm healing rays of the yellow sun to soothe me.

It took a couple of days of those yellow sun spa treatments before I was feeling fully like myself. The conversation that Kal and I had in reference to the Bat was anything but productive. It came to the point where I told him he was right about everything, just so he would shut up about it. I love the big guy, don’t get me wrong, but to say he’s been smothering me would be an understatement. I spent a good hour alone convincing him that I needed to stay at my job with Wayne Enterprises because my cover was already so firmly established and Bruce already knew who I really was.

I approached the steps leading to the front entrance of Wayne Manor. I hadn’t even heard so much as a peep from Bruce since that epic day and I’d have to say, I was more than a little miffed about it. I paused before knocking on the door to see if my super hearing could pick up any conversations happening within the house. So I occasionally like to eavesdrop, you know you would too. I picked up a conversation occurring between Alfred and Bruce from within the kitchen.

“Master Bruce, I am sure Kara is fine. Her cousin has been through outrageously more tragic occurrences than a mere dagger and easily lived to tell the tale,” Alfred encouraged.

“That’s not the point, Alfred. I should have been there, I shouldn’t have told her to go after him,” Bruce argued.

“You would have told Robin or Batgirl to do the same thing in the past. Was it any different to put them in potential harm’s way over Supergirl?” Alfred inquired.

“Of course not, I just-,I should tell her to find another cover job. The waters between Clark and I have become increasingly muddy,” Bruce said and at that comment, I whisked through the door, possibly splitting some of the wood in the frame.

“Oh no you won’t, Batboy,” I said, putting my hands on my hips after having super sped into the kitchen, glaring on at Bruce who rose an eyebrow at me.

“Were you…’listening’ to our conversation?” Bruce asked with mild amusement as I took a few steps closer to him.

“That isn’t the point. The point is, that I didn’t spend hours of my time arguing with Kal and convincing him that keeping my job at Wayne Enterprises not only made the most sense because it was already so established, but also because you already know who I am, for you to just be a coward and tell me to quit!” I rattled off, barely taking a breath as Bruce’s eyes slowly widened. Alfred approached me, lightly placing a hand on my shoulder.

“I am very pleased to see you are well, Miss Kara,” he said before he high tailed it out of the kitchen.

“Coward, huh?” Bruce asked, folding his arms over his chest sternly and imposingly.

“Did I stutter?” I asked, narrowing my eyes up at him.

“Does it infuriate you that you become more attractive when you act all intimidating in stature?” he asked with a lopsided grin. I had to shake my head at this comment because it completely caught me off guard. I even forgot what I was trying to be intimidating for.

“Attractive?” I managed to reply as he smirked at me.

“You know you are; now you’re just fishing for compliments,” he said as he raised a hand to brush the hair from my eyes with a smile. I could feel a lump forming in my throat as I stared up at him, especially when he started to learn forward and then, suddenly, a familiar voice echoed through the hallway.

“Kara, are you here?!” Dick yelled as Bruce and I took a step away from each other. Dick appeared in the doorframe of the kitchen, peering on at me with concern. He ran over and wrapped his arms around me tightly.

“I just found out that you’ve been in recovery for the past three days, why didn’t you call or text me, Babe?” he said with frantic concern in his voice as he peeled away to peer down at me, his hands clenching my shoulders.

“I’m sorry Dick, I would have, but I wasn’t exactly cognitive during that whole process,” I said when suddenly he leaned in to kiss me. I had a split second at this point to decide how I was going to handle this situation. On one hand, I could idly kiss him back as to not raise suspicion while, in the process, thoroughly piss of Bruce, and on the other hand, I could go completely stiff and let Dick kiss a dead fish while simultaneously breaking his heart. My life sucked at this very moment, even worse than having a kryptonite dagger in my side. Who was I kidding? Bruce didn’t care who I kissed! So I kissed him back. Dick pulled away and smiled down at me idly, rubbing the back of my neck with his thumb.

“I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you,” he said to me and I heard Bruce clear his throat behind us; the sound of keys jingling. He roared past us, barely bothering to glance in our direction.

“There’s an emergency at the office. Lock up when you two leave. Kara, glad to see you’re feeling better,” Bruce said, and there he was…back in Batman mode. I hid a frown as I watched Bruce walk out the door and jumped a little as the door slammed shut. Dick’s eyebrows rose.

“Wow…must be one hell of an emergency,” he said, and all I could do was sigh.


	10. Denial

Today was my first day back at Wayne Enterprises after my recovery and multiple disagreements between myself, Kal, and Bruce. I clutched the coffee caddy in my palms as I approached Ruby’s desk with a meager smile.

“Nice to see you, Ruby,” I said, handing her, her usual Chai tea. She took the tea with a smile before she rose from her desk to give me a hug. My eyes widened as I lightly patted her back in response, having not realized our working relationship had transgressed to this.

“I am so glad you are okay, Linda,” she said before she pulled away from the hug, giving my shoulders a light squeeze before sitting back down at her desk.

“What’s the mood status?” I asked, motioning my head towards Bruce’s office door. Ruby rolled her eyes as she idly tapped her finger rapidly upon her desk.

“If I were you…I’d walk in with a shield,” she said as my eyebrows rose in surprise.

“That bad, huh?” I said, clearing my throat and adjusting the purse on my shoulder.

“Good luck!” Ruby exclaimed as I made my way to the door and turned the knob. I opened the door slowly, my heart thumping so fast I thought it might explode from my chest. Bruce sat at his desk, filing through paperwork per usual, but the look he had on his face included furrowed eyebrows that could not have been furrowed any farther. I cleared my throat to introduce my presence as he hadn’t yet acknowledged it.

“You’re late,” he said sternly, not bothering to glance up at me as he continued to sign papers.

“Oh come on, Bruce, only by a couple of minutes. I was talking to Ruby,” I said, approaching the desk cautiously as if at any moment he would spontaneously combust and send me flying across the room.

“I don’t pay you to socialize,” he said with a growl, still not bothering to look up at me. Ruby was not kidding; he was in such a bad mood, I had to wonder if he just heard news that The Joker escaped Arkham again or something.

“Right, I’m, uh-I’m sorry…,” I said, having not a clue as to how else to respond. I placed the coffee cup at the corner of his desk lightly before removing my own and tossing the caddy into the wastebasket. Bruce finally glanced elsewhere from his papers, but it was to the coffee cup and then right back to his papers.

“Thank you,” was all he said as I frowned and sulked down into the chair in front of his desk.

“Don’t get too comfortable, I’m actually about to leave. I have a meeting with a potential new executive for the board across town,” he said and I adjusted in my seat, taking a sip of my coffee.

“Well that sounds boring,” I responded as he finally looked up at me, placing the pen down on his desk. I caught his gaze and suddenly felt extremely uncomfortable, and not in the hot and bothered sort of way.

“Some of us actually have work to do for our alter-egos,” he said gruffly and I stared at him, somewhat shocked at this sudden change in demeanor. Rather, this was the real Bruce Wayne again all of a sudden, not the version of Bruce I had seemed to tap my way into. I opened my mouth to respond, but he was already standing from his desk, his coat draped over his arm. He walked past me and my eyes landed on the stranded coffee that I had brought him. I rose, grabbing the coffee as I did so.

“Bruce, you forgot your coffee,” I said, turning to hand it to him. He glanced over his shoulder, idly waving me off.

“I don’t need the caffeine right now. Get with Ruby and find out what tasks she needs assistance with. I probably won’t be back in the office ‘til tomorrow morning. Have a good day,” he said with a nod and strode out of the office. I stood there for a moment, completely dumbfounded and at a loss. I decided to not think much of it and assumed he was just having a bad day. He most certainly wouldn’t have opened up about it if that were the case. He’d be okay tomorrow, I thought.

Well, he wasn’t. In fact, the next day, I was lucky  to get two words out of him the entire day, which made for a very awkward and very boring work environment. The entire week continued this way and on Friday, I finally worked up the courage to find out once and for all what had his belt in a knot. I placed my hands firmly on the edge of his desk and leaned in to look at him.

“Bruce, just what exactly is going on with you?” I asked as he glanced up at me with a quirk of the eyebrow.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said with full seriousness and I rolled my eyes, pushing back from the desk.

“I am not an idiot. It is clearly obvious something is going on with you as your entire behavior has completely changed since…you know,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest in a huff. Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers before speaking.

“I don’t know what you want me to say. I am the CEO of a company; it is not just a front. I have an actual business to run. I’ve gotten busy and I don’t have time for small talk anymore,” he said simply. I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Bull… _shit_ ,” I said incredulously. I don’t swear often, so when I do, anyone who knows me knows that I mean business. Bruce’s eyes widened slightly before he rose from his desk. I could tell that he was doing this a means to purposely become more intimidating with his height compared to my own.

“Excuse me?” he said and I didn’t move a muscle.

“You heard me. Look, I know you have this whole work before ‘fun’ bravado that you like to put on and that you like to pretend you are a statue of emotions, but you’re not fooling me,” I said sternly, gazing on at Bruce, challenging him to retort. He moved from behind the desk and stalked over, glaring down at me with a squared off jaw.

“You _don’t_ know me,” he said before he brushed past me with a grunt. It took me a moment to realize he was actually leaving the office. I turned around, taking a few steps forward.

“Bruce!” I yelled after him and he did not stop. I stood there with my eyebrows furrowed, not really knowing how to handle this current situation. I went home that evening completely distracted, confused, and just feeling downright crummy. Maybe Kal had actually gotten to him and he cut off any attempts at being nice to me in the hopes that I’d actually quit. Would he actually do that? Purposely try to sabotage me? I didn’t think so, but then again, this past week had completely rocked my world with what I thought I knew about Bruce Wayne.

As night settled in, I decided to end this silly debacle once and for all. I donned my Super tights and flew to Gotham City. I landed atop the building where the Bat-Signal resided and flipped on the switch, watching as the infamous Bat symbol displayed brightly in the foggy night sky. I crossed my arms and I waited. It didn’t take long before I heard a light _swoosh_ sound and then a _thud_ as the dark, familiar form landed on the rooftop. He walked towards me, raising a hand to point at the Bat spotlight.

“ _This_ …is _not_ a text messaging service,” he said as he flipped off the light, dark eyes boring into my soul behind the Bat mask.

“I didn’t know how else to get your attention. I want you to tell me what is going on. I figured if you’re not willing to talk as Bruce and Linda then maybe you’d talk as Batman and Supergirl, now that you have an actual mask to hide behind,” I snapped as he clenched his fists and began to pace idly back and forth.

“There is nothing to say and you really need to stop following me like some obsessed, adolescent teenager,” he quipped before he started to stalk towards the edge of the building. My mouth fell agape at his comment as I put my hands on my hips.

“Are you kidding me right now?!” I yelped before he shot his grappling hook into a nearby building and started to navigate through the skyscrapers of Gotham. I gave chase, immediately taking flight and following him building by building. I followed him all the way back to Wayne Manor, where he had immediately dove into one of the secret entrances to the Bat Cave. I managed to fly in just in time before the entrance closed. I landed on the metal platform where one of the Bat Vehicles resided and slowly began to walk towards Bruce who was pacing near the Bat Computer.

“Bruce, please just talk to me. Despite these years of despising one another, we’ve known each other so long, I consider you a dear friend,” I asked of him as I slowly made my way towards him, approaching him like an angry bear.

“I can’t have this conversation with you, Kara. I told myself things could never escalate to this with anyone, ever again. There’s too many complications, distractions, dangers,” he said, continuing to pace as her face grew quizzical. Can’t let things escalate…I repeated to myself. I wasn’t entirely certain where he was going with that.

“What’s complicated Bruce?” I asked as he suddenly stopped, gripping the gauntlets from his arms and throwing them to a nearby work bench. I winced as he turned to face me.

“Look, go to Grayson. It makes sense, you two knew each other when you were kids, both protégés to established heroes, and he’s……….sweet,” he said, pausing a long moment before saying that last word. My lips slowly parted as I began to realize where Bruce was going with this and I felt my heart drop to my feet. Did he seriously… _like_ me?

“Is that what this is all about? You’re jealous of Dick?” I asked, raising my eyebrows and taking another step closer. He raised his finger at me as quick as a rabbit.

“I am _not_ jealous and he is crazy about you,” he said as I stopped dead in my tracks, pausing a moment to think.

“See that’s just the thing…I’m…not crazy about him,” I said hesitantly as I watched Bruce’s face furrow in confusion.

“What are you talking about?” he asked at complete attention.

“Hello, Sherlock Holmes…did you ever stop to think for one moment that I’ve been seeing Grayson in an immature attempt at getting attention from someone else?” I asked and he shook his head as if shaking away cobwebs.

“You sure did a convincing job of ‘not being crazy about him,’ “ he quipped sarcastically and I threw my hands in the air in frustration.

“Bruce, I realized recently that I am not the same teenage girl that crash landed here ten years ago. More importantly, I also realized that I am nothing like my cousin. I don’t need sweet. I need danger, I need intrigue, and I _don’t_ need it to be easy, what fun is that?” No sooner had the last word left my mouth did I suddenly feel Bruce’s mouth crushing against my own, his towering form making my body bend backwards slightly from the force of impact. My hands rose to idly shove at him for a moment because everything just happened in such a rush, but he didn’t let me second guess myself as he pushed further against me and our kissing became downright rabid. If my lips could have bruised in that moment, they would have.

I suddenly found myself pushing into him before I shoved his body up against a nearby cave wall. He let out a stern grunt from the impact as I pulled away, looking up at him with concern.

“I-I don’t know if I can do this, Bruce I-don’t want to hurt you,” I said as I really had no idea the level that I could control myself. I had successfully performed the act a few times throughout the years, but there was never a fire raging inside me the way that it was currently with the Batman. Bruce grabbed my shoulders and switched our positions so that I was now the one that was having my back slammed up against the cave wall. I grunted and smiled wickedly; even more elated that he knew just how my mind was working. He lifted a hand to rip off the cowl from his face, staring down at me.

“You won’t,” he insisted before his mouth crashed upon mine again. My hands ran up the armor plating of his Bat suit, idly whimpering that I hadn’t a clue as to how to even begin removing his suit from him. It wasn’t exactly a t-shirt and jeans ensemble. One of his hands grabbed my own as he idly kissed my palm, never taking his eyes off me. He continued to go through the song and dance of removing his Batsuit piece by piece until the only thing left between me and the vision of his Bat-Rod was a pair of black boxer briefs. I bit my lip in anticipation as he stepped forward, slipping his hands underneath the top of my Super uniform, slipping it up and over my head. I meanwhile, had been working at the belt at my waist to relieve myself of my skirtbefore kicking off my red boots.

I looked at him for a moment, taking in every curve of his muscles, every scar that laced his arms, his stomach, his shoulders. His body was pure perfection, but I would have plenty of time to ogle at his muscles later, my body had other tasks in mind. I grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him towards me again, Bruce raising a hand to brace himself against the cave wall. He dipped his other hand behind my back and unclasped my bra with two fingers. I dropped my arms to let the straps fall from my shoulders and Bruce’s mouth immediately engulfed one breast as the other was idly kneaded within his hand.

My head fell back against the cave wall as my mouth fell agape at the feeling of him suckling and fondling before his nose trailed down my stomach to the edge of the lace underwear I wore. I could feel my insides writhing as my breaths began to quicken in anticipation. He gripped the top of the lace underwear and gave it a quick tug, ripping the lace from my body before tossing it aside. He teasingly splayed his tongue over my mound for a moment as one of my hands suddenly slammed into the cave wall behind me, causing a few specks of rock to fly free. This caught me off guard for a moment, but Bruce hadn’t batted an eyelash as he continued to tease with his tongue. I decided I just couldn’t take it anymore as I grabbed his face and brought it up to mine.  

“I appreciate the sentiment, but I need you _now_ ,” I said. I hadn’t been kidding when I said I didn’t need sweet. Sometimes a gal just wanted to be taken and skip past the semantics. Bruce smiled wickedly as he slipped the boxer briefs from his lower half. My eyes widened at the sight of his length and I had only a moment to revel in it before he grabbed one of my legs, wrapped it around his waist and plunged his way inside me. I let out an exasperated cry of pleasure at the sudden fullness I felt within me, my hands clenching for dear life at the holds I managed to find along the cave walls.

He continued to thrust at slower and then quicker paces as his body bent into my own, occasionally giving kisses to my neck and breasts. I pulled myself forward, wrapping one arm around his shoulders to hold on for dear life as the other hand reached around to cop a feel of that deliciously plump rear end. I smiled to myself, liking very much what I found. He let out a light grunt as he suddenly grabbed my other leg and wrapped it around his waist, picking me up while supporting my butt with his hands. He carried me across the way, kissing me roughly as we went. He slowly placed me down and I shuddered as I felt cool metal against my skin. I opened my eyes and realized I was lying on my back, naked on the Bat-Mobile as Bruce peered down at me with a grin.

“Um, I don’t want to dent your car…,” I remarked as he patted the hood of the car with his hand.

“Alloy-bonded, armor plating; think she can handle it. You said you always wanted to ride in the Batmobile,” He remarked and I smirked to myself because I _had_ said that, hadn’t I? Just never thought it would be _on_ the thing. His hands grasped my hips as he pulled me to the edge of the hood and readjusted himself between my thighs. He placed his hands on either side of my head as he leaned forward, peering down at me as he plunged back inside. My back arched up off the hood of the car, actually liking the feel of the cool metal beneath me. He worked his hips expertly against my core, occasionally standing up straight and holding onto my hips to make my body stay put. He then lifted my hips slightly off the hood so that the angle allowed him to go even deeper and it was at this point that I almost lost complete control.

I clenched my fists and regained my composure, but then the overwhelming sensations started to travel up my body as he took me into the ultimate finish. Every single muscle in my body seemed to clench, even in areas where I had no idea my super strength lied. I heard Bruce grunting as his one fist found its way to the hood of the car in a mild punch, his own finish occurring at that very moment within me. My muscles then slowly unclenched, my mouth was agape as I slowly opened my eyes to see a bit of cool air dissipating from my mouth. Bruce cleared his throat as he touched the tips of his hair that now had literal frost on them. A hand pressed over my mouth as I saw that I had lost a little control with my artic breath. I raised a hand to tussle his hair, knocking away the frost. He chuckled and smiled down at me.

“I’m guessing we did good?” he said with raised eyebrows and I playfully bit one of my knuckles.

“I’m so sorry, didn’t mean to give you…literal frosted tips.” I smirked as he slowly pulled himself out of me and turned to lay on his back on the hood of the car beside me.

“I’m just glad it wasn’t the heat vision. I don’t think I’d look very good with a Lex Luthor cut,” he joked and I sighed with content, closing my eyes in complete relaxation. A moment or two passed before I suddenly felt a hand lightly gripping at my ankle. What the-, my _ankle_?

“You keep going and you’re going to float right into the cave ceiling,” Bruce remarked as I opened in my eyes, shocked to find myself floating at least 6 feet off the ground. I lost my concentration from sheer surprise and began to fall, Bruce’s form immediately leaping up to catch me in his arms so that I didn’t land on the hood of the car.

“I said she could handle a few thrusts, not sure how she’d handle a body of steel landing on her,” he said with a wink before lightly placing me on the ground. If my cheeks could blush, they undoubtedly would have at that moment.

“Is it crazy that I am actually starving right now?” I asked, twirling a piece of my hair around my fingers.

“Let’s head upstairs then. Raid the fridge. Pretty sure there’s some left over pasta in there,” he said as I smiled hugely at that remark.  Be still my heart, the man ate carbs. I watched him go over to a nearby closet. He removed a pair of sweatpants and a dress shirt. He walked over and handed me the dress shirt as he slipped the sweatpants on to himself. I took a moment to stare at his naked torso before he took my hand and started to lead me toward the secret entrance into the manor. I smiled to myself as I looked down to see one Super outfit splayed across the cave floor and the Bat cowl sitting atop it. This…was wild.


	11. Uproar

We took the elevator that led to the secret entrance that led from the cave to a room within the mansion. I was thankful that Bruce was tall so as his dress shirt fell all the way to my knees like a dress;wouldn’t want an awkward moment if Alfred happened to be within sight. We both casually walked into the kitchen, only to see a young, redheaded woman in a wheel chair, idly thumbing through a magazine at a nearby table. My body ran into the back of Bruce’s as he halted and I let out a grunt. The redhead looked up from her magazine, raising an eyebrow at Bruce’s half nakedness.

“Well, hey Bruce. Long time no see,” she said and I remained behind Bruce’s back for a moment, trying to make myself smaller as if his body really would conceal me. Bruce cleared his throat as he raised a hand to rub at the back of his neck.

“Hey, Babs…had no idea you were stopping by,” he said casually as my eyes widened at the name Babs; had to have been Barbara Gordon I thought as my head slowly peered around Bruce’s body, giving Barbara a little wave. Barbara’s eyes grew as wide as saucers as she began to wheel her chair over to us.

“Kara?! I haven’t seen you in, what, ten years?” she exclaimed and I took a deep breath. Might as well get this over with I thought as I fully stood from behind the shield that had been Bruce, uncomfortably combing a strand of hair over my ear, unable to make eye contact for a few moments. I cleared my throat, deciding that we were all adults here and she hadn’t regretted her sexcapades with Bruce in the least. I moved over to the coffee pot that had still been kept warm from Alfred making earlier and opened each cabinet door until I found a mug.

“Yeah it has been awhile, actually; Barb, it is nice to see you!” I said over my shoulder as I began to pour coffee into a mug. Bruce stepped forward and hugged Barbara despite the fact of him being shirtless, though I am sure during her time fighting crime with him as Batgirl, she’d seen that plenty. Barbara looked around casually, tapping her finger on the armrest of her wheelchair.

“Soooo…anything you want to tell me?” Barbara said as she raised her eyebrows to Bruce. My face remained staring at the coffee pot, waiting to hear how Bruce would respond. He cleared his throat as he, too, moved over to grab a cup of coffee beside me.

“Well, it sort of just…happened.” Bruce started and Barbara laughed a little, looking back and forth between the two of us, obviously taking note of our dress attire.

“Well…clearly, but are you two…a thing, now?” I looked up at Bruce as he looked down to me, both of us trying to read the other’s expressions. Clearly, we hadn’t gotten into this conversation and truth be told, I wasn’t really sure _what_ this was.

“I wouldn’t give it a label just yet. Like he said this just kind of happened,” I said, burying my face into my coffee mug with a loud slurp. Barbara looked between the two of us again before speaking.

“You see that’s the funniest thing, because I just got off the phone with Dick yesterday and he said that he and Kara were doing great…or, rather, _amazing_ I believe was the word he chose to use,” Barbara said as my mug suddenly shattered into a dozen pieces, to send coffee spilling everywhere from my hand clenching into a fist. Barbara’s eyes widened and Bruce immediately grabbed my hand, I think forgetting for a moment that I wouldn’t bleed.

“Look, I’ve seen enough soap operas to know not to get in the middle of some love triangle, especially _this_ one, so mum’s the word from me, but you owe it to Dick to tell him Bruce,” she said, looking over to Bruce with concern. Bruce furrowed his eyebrows as I quickly grabbed a dishtowel so I could drop to the floor and began to clean up the coffee. It was also an excuse to hide.

“You think I don’t know that, Barbara? I’m not _that_ cold,” he spat as Barbara smirked a little, leaning back in her wheel chair.

“Pff, could’ve fooled me,” she muttered as Alfred came running around the corner in alarm.

“Oh my word, I heard a shatter, what happened?!” He bellowed as he immediately bent down to shoo me away from the broken glass and coffee spill.

“I’m sorry Alfred, I didn’t mean to break it. Let me help you, I can’t get cut from the glass,” I said as he already had half the mess completely picked up before he grabbed a dustpan from a nearby cabinet.

“It is quite alright, Miss Kara. I will have it taken care of in a jiffy,” Alfred said as I wrapped my arms around myself, backing away from the mess. I looked over to Barbara, clearing my throat in an attempt to change the subject as I eyed her wheel chair.  I hadn’t seen her since she was Batgirl and I had heard through Kal about the unfortunate events leading to her being paralyzed. A run-in with the Joker and a bullet to her spine, I remembered. The thought sent a chill through my body and made me all the more appreciative of my bulletproof form.

“So, Barbara, are you still moonlighting as Oracle?” I asked as Bruce looked a bit relieved at the change in pace of the conversation as he idly helped Alfred discard the broken glass bits, regardless of Alfred’s insistence that he had it under control.

“With Dinah finally taking the plunge with Oliver and Selina off to who knows where, that pretty much just left me and Helena. It’s not an everyday occurrence, but I still serve as her eye in the sky when she needs me to,” Barbara said with a smile, looking up at me, studying me, analyzing me. I felt like a petri dish on display in a microscope. My eyebrows rose to the particular comment she made about Dinah and Oliver.

“Dinah and Oliver got married finally?” I asked with a huge grin, having not heard that one piping through the grape vine.

“Yup, the Hood finally nabbed his Canary,” she said with a little bit of a laugh before turning to look at Bruce.

“Bruce, I don’t want to keep you, I know it is getting late, but I actually stopped by to speak with you about something,” she said as Bruce dusted off his hands, looking towards her.

“Alright, sure, what did you need to talk about?” he asked as Barbara side glanced at me with a nervous grin.

“Um, in…private,” she said as I all then more caught the hint and cleared my throat.

“I’ll, uh, I’ll be upstairs Bruce, just come find me when you’re done,” I said as he nodded in my direction. I scurried for the stairs, actually enjoying the excuse to remove myself from the embarrassing situation I put myself in. I contemplated using my super hearing to listen in on their conversation, but thought twice about it. Thing had already been awkward as it was between the redhead and I without eavesdropping on a knowingly wanted conversation. I dove into one of the nearby guest rooms, curling myself up on one of the beds, feeling absolutely exhausted. I smiled deeply to myself as I started to drift into dreamland. Though the conversation had been awkward with Barbara, the events that transpired between me and Bruce mere moments prior were enough to make any woman smile like an idiot.

I woke up to a rumbling whisper in my ear and a hand lightly caressing my hair.

“Kara.” Bruce said as I flittered my eyes open to peer up at him.

“Did you want to sleep here by yourself or in my room?” he asked and I was surprised that he actually gave me the choice as I sat up.

“Well, I, uh-,I’m not really sure how this sort of thing works…,” I said sheepishly as he canted his head at me.

“How what works?” he asked quizzically and I drew my knees into my chest as I wrapped my arms around my knees.

“I mean should I go home or…I mean…,” I said, not having any idea how to even ask what I was trying to ask. I was so incredibly confused.

“Did you…think this was a one night stand?” he asked, raising his eyebrows as I could tell he was trying to hide a smile.

“Well, given your track record…,” I said flippantly and he smirked, placing a hand on one of my knees.

“That’s what Bruce Wayne leads them to believe, but I kind of hoped we could do what we did again…and again…and, well, maybe a million more times if we try hard enough,” he said with a sly grin and my eyes widened.

“A million, huh? Well, in that case, I’ll move to your room,” I said with a grin as we both stood from the bed and he interlaced his fingers with my own, guiding me to the master bedroom down the hall. We crawled into bed together as my form clung to his side and I placed my head at the crook of his neck, idly tracing my fingers over the scars on his chest.

“I wanted to warn you that I contacted Dick and asked him to come over for lunch tomorrow. Just mentally prepare yourself for it,” he said and I pursed my lips with a light sigh.

“I don’t regret anything but I do feel horrible,” I said in all seriousness. Bruce sighed lightly as he raised a hand to rub his face.

“He already hates me, so this won’t change much,” he said as I sighed a bit again and drifted off to sleep, reminding myself mentally to ask about his and Barbara’s mysterious conversation.

The next morning, I stopped by my apartment for a change of clothes, considering the dress shirt Bruce let me borrow wasn’t the best dress attire for lunch. I made my way back to Wayne Manor and to say I was nervous was the understatement of the century. Bruce and I sat in the living room, completely silent before Bruce reached over and took my hand in his.

“It’ll be alright, Kara,” he said simply and I nodded in agreement as the doorbell ring, my nerves suddenly swarming over me all over again. Bruce rose to answer the door and shook Dick’s hand as he welcomed him in. I stood from the couch, smoothing the backs of my jeans with my hands as Dick approached me. I immediately went in for a hug as to avoid Dick attempting to kiss me. Bruce put his hands in his pockets and stepped up next to Dick with a clearing of his throat.

“Dick, I’m going to just cut to the chase,” he said as Dick turned to look at him with a furrow of the eyebrows. Bruce looked him dead in the eye and didn’t even flinch as he spoke…the man really could be an absolute gargoyle.

“Kara and I spent the night together last night,” he said, trying to tame the carnal events that happened in the Bat-Cave _and_ on the Bat-Mobile. Suddenly, Dick’s fist collided fast and hard into the side of Bruce’s face. Bruce raised a hand to idly adjust the side of his jaw that just received that harsh blow and I raised my hands to my mouth. Bruce let Dick punch him and made no move to retaliate.

“I deserved that,” Bruce said simply as Dick’s chest heaved.

“You’re damn right you did,” Dick said before looking over his shoulder at me and I stood straight, dropping my hands from my face.

“Dick, I’m so sorry it just happened-,”I started to say before he raised a hand as a sign for me to stop and interrupted me. I shut my mouth as he sighed.

“Honestly, I had a feeling you were into Bruce since the day I walked in the gym. I guess I just kind of hoped after going on a date with me, you’d choose me over him. I was wrong,” he said as I frowned slightly, feeling horrible and relieved all at the same time. It was a strange, strange feeling.

“I’m going to just grab lunch on my way back to Bludhaven, but, uh, thanks for at least telling me,” Dick said before turning to face Bruce, an imposing finger raising to his face.

“I’m not the type of man to stand in the way when you’re interested in someone, but the next time you want to _tap_ something _I’m_ interested in, man up and fucking say something to me,” Dick said as Bruce stood silent and squared off his jaw. I could tell he was fighting every bone in his body to not make a retort to this comment. Dick slid his sunglasses back onto his face and grabbed the motorcycle helmet he had brought in with him. He glanced over his shoulder at me.

“Good luck,” was all Dick said before walking out the door. I let out a breath as I walked up to Bruce, looking up at his face where a bruise already started to form from the punch he received. I grimaced as I caught his gaze.

“That hurt?” I asked rhetorically.

“Kind of proud of that punch actually, given the fact that I trained him. That was some force,” Bruce said with a smirk. My eyes fell to the floor for a moment as I felt his fingers lightly touch my chin and raise it to his gaze.

“What’s going on in that head of yours?” he asked as he surveyed my expression.

“I was just thinking that this was nothing compared to telling Clark about this,” I said as his whole face squared off.

“Let’s keep this between us for a while, let the dust settle from the last uproar,” he said as I nodded slowly in agreement.


	12. Worth

For the next several weeks after letting Dick know that Bruce and I had slept together, we kept our promise of hiding it from Clark temporarily. I also made a special trip to Bludhaven to speak with Dick by myself and truly apologize for not just coming to terms with my feelings like a big girl. After a couple of hours of talking, we came to a mutual understanding and agreed to remain friends with water treading under the bridge. Again, he had told me “Good luck,” before we parted. I swear, I know Bruce can be a handful at times with his moods and overall stone cold demeanor, but he really wasn’t as bad as people kept seeming to make him out to be. It could also have been that he was different when it was just him and I together. That thought made me smile to myself as I strode past Ruby’s desk to enter Bruce’s office. Bruce immediately looked up from his paperwork with a grin as if sunlight had just peeked from behind rain clouds.

“There she is,” he said as he rose from his desk. I turned around to face the door after I shut it, raising my fingers to lock it. Wouldn’t want Ruby barging in on what was about to transpire. Bruce cocked an eyebrow as he watched me lock the door. I then turned around, removing the clip that held my hair in a bun atop my head and letting the gold waves fall in all their glory. I slowly sauntered over to him, undoing one button at a time of my shirt as I approached.

“I think I like where this is going…,” Bruce said, eyeing me intently as I approached the desk. I sat atop it, spreading my legs and hiking my skirt up to show him that I just so happened to not be wearing any underwear. He smiled at me as his hands moved to his belt.

“Care to see how much weight the desk can handle?” I asked with a mischievous grin and we proceeded in yet another carnal bout of good ‘ol fashioned sexing. Our relationship the past few weeks oozed of heated attraction, flirting, and just all around consumption of one another. We still hadn’t had the actual “relationship” conversation as I am sure Bruce hesitated for the very same reasons I did. We were superheroes, balancing a healthy relationship; checking emotions at the door and balancing the alter-egos would be a challenge. Kal made it look so easy with Lois and I wanted nothing more than to ask him his secrets, but I couldn’t do that. Even if we told him, I’m still not sure he’d have that conversation, because, well, he probably wouldn’t want the relationship to work. For now, Bruce and I were just enjoying one another and I was okay with that. I got to have Batman whenever I wanted him and the results always left me floating with ecstasy…sometimes literally.

I decided one day to surprise Bruce on my day off by bringing him lunch to work. I knew that he rarely even remembered to eat half the time between whisking off to guard the streets of Gotham and running Wayne Enterprises. I pushed the door open slowly, a paper bag full of deliciously greasy Chinese food clutched to my chest.

“Knock, knock.” I said as he peered up from his desk in surprise.

“Isn’t it your day off?” he questioned as I continued my way in.

“Why yes it is. This is called…a sweet gesture,” I mocked as I plopped the bag of food onto his desk. He reviewed it before looking up at me with a devilish grin.

“Here I thought you came to test the desk again,” he remarked as I crossed my arms over my chest.

“Easy, Cowboy, eat…now and then maybe we’ll talk about the desk,” I retorted with a wink as I moved around the desk to give Bruce a kiss while reaching out with my hand to open the bag of food. I peeled away, frowning at the lipstick stains left across Bruce’s mouth as I licked my thumb to rub it off. He raised an eyebrow at me.

“Did you just use your spit to clean my mouth off?” he asked with amusement and I rolled my eyes, placing his food in front of him and shoving a pair of chopsticks in his hand.

“Oh please, my spit has been there plenty of times by now, Bruce,” I remarked as he chuckled, eyeing me as I grabbed my own food and a plastic spork from the bag. There was no way I was attempting to use chopsticks again, someone might lose an eye. I sat down in the seat across from him and we shared a calming silence as we ate our food. A few moments later, Ruby’s voice came through the intercom.

“Mr. Wayne, there is someone here to see you. He doesn’t have an appointment,” she said and Bruce rose an eyebrow, as did I.

“Who is it Ruby?” Bruce asked.

“He says his name is Clark Kent,” Ruby replied as both of our eyes widened. I immediately started to look around as if I were trying to find a rug to climb under. Bruce looked at me and held up his hand as if to calm me down.

“It’ll be fine. You work here, we’ll just say it’s Casual Friday,” he said as I furrowed my eyebrows at him. It was in fact Thursday. I stood up from my chair as I saw him moving a finger to press the button for the intercom.

“Wait!” I started to say, but immediately shut my mouth as I saw the button was already being pressed and Clark could hear my voice through Ruby’s intercom. Crap.

“Send him in Ruby,” Bruce said.

“He’s already on his way…,” Ruby started to say before the door flung open. I stood straight up with my mouth half-full of Chinese food as Clark stood in the doorway, eyeing both of us.

“Hey Clark!” I said which came out more like “Ha Cler” from my mouth being full of food.

“Kara, what are doing here? Isn’t it your day off?” Kal asked. This guy had a mind like a steel trap. How did he possibly remember that; I think I told him, what, one time? I gulped down my food as I idly wiped the corners of my mouth with my hand.

“Yeah, well, I thought I’d surprise Bruce with some lunch. You know me; hate to see people not eat,” I said, laughing nervously. What exactly did I just say? Ugh, this was going to be bad, oh so very bad. Bruce chimed in at that point as he came from around the desk to approach Kal, one hand in his pocket and the other extended to Kal for a shake.

“Just having a friendly lunch, Clark,” Bruce said as Kal eyed him suspiciously behind his glasses, hesitantly shaking his hand as he noticed a light pink smudge at the corner of Bruce’s mouth. Kal’s eyes then darted to my face to take note of the pink lipstick remnants across my mouth. His grip tightened harshly on Bruce’s hand and Bruce let out a grunt.

“Did you two…are you two…tell me this is a joke!” Kal bellowed and my mouth dropped open. The hurricane that I feared for weeks was about to blow through;right here, right now. Bruce squared off his jaw and spoke through a grimace from the ever-growing pain developing in his hand from the squeeze.

“I’d be lying…if I said it was a joke,”Bruce said with cool confidence and my jaw dropped even further. That was the line he went with? I was planning to be all about, “Deny, deny, deny,” and that plan just flew straight out the window.

“You son of a-,” Kal started to say before he grabbed onto Bruce’s lapels and hurled him onto a nearby table. I let out a gasp.

“CLARK!” I screamed as my eyes darted to the door expecting Ruby to come in any moment and hoping she learned her lesson from last time. How the hell were they going to explain this? Kal didn’t listen to me. Instead, he was completely focused on attempting to beat the life out of Bruce in any way possible. Bruce rolled onto his feet as Kal continued to attempt blow after blow. Bruce was able to dodge and deflect, but several of them ended up clipping his jaw or shoulder. He ran over to a nearby wall and removed the antique shield, holding it up to his head as Kal came down with another swing. The shield made a loud pang and a huge dent resided in it now in the shape of Kal’s fist. Bruce then flung the shield like a Frisbee at Kal and I watched as it slammed into his chest, barely causing him to stagger. Kal’s anger was fuming at this point as I saw the familiar blue tint begin to form in his eyes. My breath caught in my throat, not believing what he was actually about to do as my body flew in the air at full speed, launching myself into Clark. I launched him into a nearby chair and sat myself on his lap, grabbing onto his shoulders firmly.

“ENOUGH!” I bellowed in his face, fuming all the while. Kal narrowed his eyes and then rolled them as he attempted to throw me off him. His angered stare slowly started to disappear as he realized he couldn’t move; he couldn’t even stand up as I held him there. Bruce wiped a bit of blood from the corner of his mouth as he stared on at this display. Superman was actually being held motionless by his cousin Supergirl. Bruce’s theories of my genetic make-up making me somewhat more powerful then Kal seemed to be accurate. I was surprised myself to be honest, but that was a conversation for later.

“Bruce, sit down!” I yelled over my shoulder to him. He raised his eyebrows as he immediately grabbed a chair to sock down into, still in awe at what he was seeing. He was also probably thinking that he was very thankful I was able to control my strength so much, given how many times he’s “finished me off”.

“Clark, do you promise to not lobotomize Bruce if I get off of you?” I asked with complete sincerity. His eyebrows furrowed at me, looking away.

“Fine.” Kal grumbled as I slowly removed myself from his lap. I grabbed my own chair and set it right between the two heroes. I sat down calmly, placing my palms atop my lap.

“Now, we are going to have a conversation as three human adults. No powers, no gadgets, just talking,” I said, looking back and forth between the two that were currently having a staring competition.

“Oh for the love of-,” I said, deciding to break this little feud right here and now.

“Clark, Bruce and I have been screwing around for the past three weeks,” I said simply as both men turned to look at me in shock.

“You could have at least eased me into this!” Kal bellowed as he ran a hair through his dark locks. I looked back over at Bruce who I could tell was biting back a smile. He was probably proud of my forwardness.

“Why, Clark? Why do I have to ease you into anything that has to do with my love life?” I ask simply, folding my arms over my chest.

“We are family. We look out for each other, and this is a horrible idea,” Kal said, making hand gestures between me and Bruce. All I could do was shrug.

“Why?” I asked raising my eyebrows at him as Bruce looked over at him as well.

“Yeah, why?” Bruce questioned. Kal looked at Bruce, fuming before speaking.

“You pipe down, you flying rodent,” he said and I rolled my eyes.

“Whatever you say, you Boy Scout in tights,” Bruce retorted with a growl. I threw my hands up in the air.

“Clark! The question!” I demanded and looked at Kal sternly.

“Because…he is a vigilante, he is irrational, pig-headed, arrogant, moody, doesn’t trust anyone but his butler, has hundreds of villains, one of which paralyzed Barbara because of him and he still hasn’t gotten over the death of his parents!” Kal bellowed. I winced at that last remark as I glanced over at Bruce. All he did was smirk in reply.

“Tell me how you really feel,” Bruce responded as I cleared my throat.

“Whereas some of those may be true, he is also loyal, charismatic, smart, resourceful, intriguing, creative, athletic, and he’s saved my life…twice. Not to mention…he’s hot as hell.” I said, looking over at Bruce who stared at me in awe. Something tells me he just thought I was in it for the Bat-Rod and not much else. Boy was he wrong. Clark sat there silent for quite some time before looking up at Bruce.

“Why her, Bruce? You used…to hate her, not trust her even,” Kal said as Bruce leaned forward in his chair, placing his elbows on his knees.

“I wouldn’t say I ever hated her, Clark. Not trust? Most definitely. She earned it over the years. She’s the only woman since…well you know, who has been able to remind me that I’m not just a CEO or a guy in a mask,” Bruce said as I smiled lightly to myself. Kal still stared on at Bruce, studying him.

“You said you swore off relationships, why the sudden change?” Kal asked and Bruce and I looked at each other, clearing our throats.

“We aren’t exactly…in a relationship,” I said as my eyes found their way to look up at the ceiling instead of at Kal. Bruce chimed in before Kal was able to blow up at my statement.

“We haven’t…talked about it, as I am sure she is feeling the same way I am. You of all people should know the complications that arise when two…people of our nature form a relationship. The dangers, the constant balancing…but, she’s a Kryptonian who can more than handle herself and she is very independent. I think…with time, it could actually work,” Bruce said as my eyes shot over to him in awe. Was he just making us exclusive or biding us time?

Kal groaned as he sat back in his seat, raising his hands to his head in frustration. Bruce and I just both stared at him, waiting to hear what he had to say. He sighed and then removed the glasses from his face, leaning forward on his knees.

“I’ll back off of you two, but seriously Bruce…commit to her. She’s my cousin who is like a little sister to me. I’m not going to leave this room until I hear you two make it official, she’s worth that much, Bruce,” Kal said and I swear I could feel my eyes getting a little teary. Was this actually happening? Bruce looked over at me with a bit of a shrug.

“I guess I should take you out on a real date if I’m going to be your boyfriend,” Bruce said simply. I smiled as I stood up to hug him and give him a kiss on the cheek. I then turned to Kal and walked over to hug him. He stood up, wrapped his arms around me and then kissed the top of my head.

“If this is what you want, then you’re right. You’re a grown woman, free to make her own choices and I don’t want you feel like you have to hide things from me, being afraid of the way I’ll react,” Kal said as I peeled my head back to look around at the damage the two of them caused. Kal looked down at his feet sheepishly.

“Right, about the damage, Bruce I-,” Kal started to say before Bruce stood up and held a hand up to stop him.

“Not the first time this office has had damage; don’t worry about it,” Bruce said as I smiled inwardly to myself, knowing exactly what he was referring to. Kal nodded then and removed an envelope from his jacket pocket to hand to Bruce.

“I originally stopped by to invite you to Lois and I’s anniversary party. Also, I wanted to ask if you’d be willing to let us have it at the manor,” Kal stated as Bruce took the envelope with a bit of surprise.

“Of course. Just talk with Alfred to set everything up,” Bruce said as Kal nodded in reply and walked up to him, extending his hand for a shake. Once Bruce took his hand, Kal yanked him in to talk lowly in his ear.

“You be good to her or I swear I really will lobotomize you,” Kal rumbled as he released Bruce’s hands and stepped back. Bruce only nodded in reply which seemed to be universal man code as to not have to talk as much as possible. Once Kal left, I walked up to Bruce to stare up at his face which now as littered with even more scrapes and bruises. I frowned as I ran my fingers through his hair.

“Your poor face, Bruce,” I said as he smiled down at me, bending his head towards me for a kiss.

“It was worth it,” he said and we kissed. This was going to be very interesting.


	13. Boom

I didn’t see Clark again until the day of his and Lois’s anniversary party at Wayne Manor. Clearly, it was Lois’s idea to have an actual party for their 10-year anniversary, because Clark wasn’t exactly the social type. I had found it ironic that not only was it a wedding anniversary for my cousin and his wife, but it was also an anniversary for me from when I first landed on Earth. I wore a cerulean blue cocktail dress as I made my way through waves of guests that were all chatting, drinking, and snacking on finger foods in the main ballroom area. I didn’t know Lois and Clark even _knew_ that many people.

After working through the obstacle course of bodies, I finally made my way to the lady of the evening that I was looking for.

“Lois!” I shrieked, as the dark haired, beautiful reporter turned around to greet me with a huge grin. She immediately bent forward to give me a tight hug.

“Kar-,er…Linda!” Lois exclaimed, having almost mistakenly said my real name. It was _still_ taking some getting used to, even on my part.

“It has been too long, Girly. I always seem to be out on assignment whenever you stop by the house!” Lois said as I smiled warmly, about to say something as I felt a large hand wrap around my waist and a familiar form press up to my side. Lois looked up to Bruce with a very wide grin, taking note of the few scrapes that were still healing from Bruce and Clark’s most recent tussle.

“Bruce Wayne. Clark told me about your…altercation,” she said as Bruce smirked, leaning over to idly kiss the top of my head.

“He’s lucky I was pulling my punches. Wouldn’t want to beat up Linda’s cousin right in front of her,” Bruce said with a wink as Lois chuckled.

“I have to say that I am absolutely thrilled to hear you two are together. I have _always_ been a major shipper for the two of you. Bruka I called you guys, actually. It just makes sense!” Lois said, that last phrase causing her voice to go up an octave in excitement.

“Shipper?” I asked quizzically. I had noticed a lot of lingo the past decade I had been on Earth, but certain words and phrases like, “BAE”, “Fleek”, and “Bye, Felicia” still eluded me.

“Bruka?” Bruce also asked quizzically.

“Oh you know…those two people you just really hope would end up together over anyone else in books, tv shows, movies…and you take the first two names and combine them and…,” Lois said as Bruce and I continued to stare on at her as if she were leaking battery acid from her eyeballs. Lois looked back and forth between the two of us and seeing that she wasn’t getting through to us, decided to move on with a wave of the hands.

“It’s a fangirl thing,” Lois said as Clark suddenly appeared behind her, making her give out a little shriek in surprise. Clark grinned widely as he wrapped his arms around her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Seeing these two interact with each other always made my teeth absolutely ache with just how adorably in love they were. It was still far too soon into Bruce and I’sventure to know what fate had in store for us, but a girl can always dream about having their own Lois and Clark relationship; or should I say…Clois?

“And just what are you three talking about?” Kal asked, looking between the three of us. Bruce and I decided to let Lois have the floor on that one since we were still confused by all her apparent made up words. Lois usually never had a hard time taking the floor…ever.

“Oh, I was just telling them about my name that I used to have for them…Bruka, remember?” Lois said, smiling to her husband over her shoulder. Clark rolled his eyes as adjusted the glasses on his face.

“Yes, and I also seem to remember asking you to _never_ say it again,” Clark quipped as Lois reached up to idly pinch his cheek with a laugh. I suddenly drowned out all other sounds around me as my eyebrows furrowed in concentration. I was picking up rapid sounds of varying explosions that seemed to be coming from a location within Gotham City. Explosions were never a good sound to hear and I immediately lifted my chin to them to speak. Kal looked down at me, obviously having now heard the sounds as well.

“I’m going to go check it out,” I said to Kal and Bruce as they booth stood up tall, adjusting their suits as if they were getting ready to change into something more…comfortable. I raised both of my hands and placed one on either of the men’s chests.

“I got this one. Clark this is your anniversary party and Bruce this is _your_ house. Mine would be the least noticed absence. Not to mention, all three of us being gone at the same time would be very obvious,” I said sternly as I slowly lowered my hands. The two men exchanged glances and squared off their jaws, seemingly exchanging mental notes. Bruce reached into his pocket and produced what looked like an earpiece. He looked at Kal before he reached over to me and slipped the earpiece in my ear.

“I know you can hear me where ever I am, but I have no way of hearing you if you’re in distress. With this piece in, I’ll be able to hear everything that is happening. If it comes down to it, I _will_ come to you for back up,” Bruce said as he slipped his own earpiece in, looking down at me sternly. Was it wrong that I found it incredibly sexy when Bruce got down to business like that? I stifled a grin at that thought and nodded my head with affirmation.

“Understood,” I said as Bruce gave my forehead a kiss and patted my shoulder.

“Go get ‘em, Lioness,” Bruce said and I had to give him a lopsided grin at his first official nickname for me, but I’d bring that to attention later. Kal nodded to me.

“Be careful,” is all Kal said which surprised me, but I was off before either of the men in my life had a chance to change their minds. Seconds later, I was clad in my Supergirl costume and flying through the air towards the sounds that I heard earlier. I landed in front of what looked like an abandoned toy factory as I looked around cautiously with a cock of the eyebrow. An eerie silence suddenly blanketed the airwaves as I slowly took a few steps forward towards the factory.

Suddenly, something came crashing through a nearby window and my arms flew up to shield my face from the glass. As I lowered my arms to look at what flew through the window, I had to cant my head quizzically at what I saw. A baseball bat? I turned my gaze towards the factory and simply tore the chain from the door handles that was currently condemning the building. As I entered the factory, my eyes widened as I saw a single hand grenade roll to my feet and idly hit my boot. My body immediately flew down to the ground, covering the grenade with my body just as it exploded. My body guarding the blast from spreading. My head shot up to look around me then, more confused than ever as I heard a high pitched voice with a slight New York-style accent echoing through the factory.

“He acts like he owns me!” the voice bellowed and I super sped to the voice, my cape flapping about me as I came to a halt in front of the woman. I cocked my head at her, reviewing the bleached blonde pigtails she wore, a black and red halter-top, hot pants, and were those roller skates? I cleared my throat.

“Do you seem to have a problem…Ma’am?” I asked stupidly, having honestly no clue how else to phrase it or state the fact that she was destroying public property and could have potentially killed someone…if she hadn’t already. The woman had clearly been crying…a lot, as her mascara and make-up was streaked all across her face. She looked on at me like a deer in the headlights before wheeling herself over to stand in front of me. Her hands found her hips and her mouth blew out a bit of air to remove a strand of hair from her face.

“Who the hell are you, Blondie?” she quipped, her words laced with attitude. I was completely taken aback as pretty much everyone in the known universe knew who Superman was, on account of  the ‘S ‘symbol alone. Powers of deduction would tell someone if Kal was Super _man_ then that would make her Super _woman_ they’d often guess first nowadays and then I’d usually correct them or leave it be. I raised my eyebrow slowly and motioned with my hand to my chest.

“Super…girl,” I said slowly and with enunciation. She rolled her eyes idly, moving her skates back and forth in one spot.

“Oh I’ve ‘eard of you alien weirdos…whatta ya doin’ in Gotham?” she asked, her eyes going wide as she stared at me. To be honest, it was kind of creeping me out a little.

“Who…are you and why have you been throwing grenades?” I asked, not really believing that the words were even leaving my mouth. They sounded ridiculous, but so far, this chick seemed to be a little two Kryptonians shy of a yellow sun. She took her hand and wiped off her palm on her shirt before extending it to me.

“Ah, jeez, where are my mannahs?! I’m Harley…Harley Quinn!” she said with pride and I slowly shook her hand, still eyeing her quizzically. Suddenly, a familiar voice was booming in my ear from the earpiece.

“Is she by herself? Ask her,” Bruce said and I looked at her, pretending as if I didn’t have a voice booming in my ear.

“Are you…by yourself Harley?” I asked and she laughed, doing a twirl on her roller skates.

“Of course I’m alone, Supes. Unless, of course, yer includin’ the voices in my head…then there’s about a hundred of us,” Harley said as her huge smile remained plastered across her face. I could only give a nervous laugh at her response as Bruce’s voice boomed in my ear again.

“Good. Harley is crazy; though I’m sure you’ve figured that out by now. She was released from Arkham  a couple months ago on ‘good behavior’; sounds like she needs to go back. Keep her busy,” Bruce said as I _so_ wanted to respond to him to ask how exactly he expected me to do that.

“So…Harley, everything okay? I heard you yelling something about thinking he _owns_ you? Who’s he?” I asked as Harley crossed her arms over her chest in a huff, sticking her bottom lip out.

“Mistah J, my soon to be _ex_ -boyfriend. Well, again, anyways. I can’t seem to shake the guy…we just click, ya know?” She looked at me with the first human expression I had seen from her since meeting several minutes ago. The crazy part was I actually _did_ know. I nodded slowly in agreement.

“So why do you keep breaking up?” I asked, actually invested somewhat in the conversation now as she let out a loud “Ha!” in response to my question before putting her hands on my hips.

“The shortah list would be why we’re still togethah, Girly. Ain’t a lotta guys that can deal with _this_ sort of crazy,” she said as she twirled a finger around near her head. She gave me that creepy smile again as she idly did figure eights with her roller skates. Suddenly, another unfamiliar voice spoke from the shadows. I was a bit miffed with myself for having not heard the figure coming into the factory.

“Ain’t that…the truth…Harl,” the voice said as I saw Harley’s eyes go wide with horror. Tears began to lightly form in her eyes as she looked on at me, forcing a smile on her face.

“Puddin’! You escaped!” she shrieked as she turned around to face him, raising her hands in the air in mocked triumph.

“Well, I couldn’t leave you all alone, Harls,” he said with a grin as his form emerged from the shadows. I could not stifle my intake of breath as I saw who it was. I’d recognize the green hair, pale white face, purple attire and painted on grin anywhere. The Joker. Mister J was The Joker. Suddenly, Bruce’s voice boomed in my air.

“I’ll be there in seconds,” he said sternly and urgently. Joker walked up to Harley and idly patted her on the face. He then grabbed her chin and turned it from side to side as if examining her.

“What’s this I hear about you leaving me again?” he asked as his hand clenched tighter around her jaw and my face grimaced at the sight.

“Oh, I was only kiddin’, Puddin’. Just girly hormones, that’s all,” Harley lied as I saw his grip grow even tighter. Okay, that was enough. I sped forward, grabbed his arm and twisted it just enough to incapacitate him without breaking his arm.

“That’s _enough_ ,” I said as Joker left out his trademark, maniacal laugh.

“Oooo, look at you. Had no idea ‘ol Superman dyed his hair and grew tits!” he shrieked as I twisted his arm even more, which to my dismay, only made him laugh that much harder.

“So strong and menacing, I _like_ it. Tell me, how big of a fan of _green_ are you?” he asked as his other hand began to rise to the flower attached to his lapel. It was then that Batman burst through the glass ceiling (it was like Gotham had its fair share of glass ceilings for Batman entrances alone) and landed on the ground near us before sliding his form between myself and Joke rjust as I released his arm.

“Batsy! The bane of my existence, honey to my bees, and milk to my-,”Joker began before Bruce’s hand was clenched tightly around his throat with a growl.

“You and Harley are going back to Arkham,” Bruce said sternly as Joker’s mouth sputtered from hardly being able to breathe. I raised my hands to Bruce’s forearms and lightly placed them there, looking at him through the eyes of his mask. I didn’t have to say that he was about to kill him out loud; my look alone was enough as he released the grip and instead started to grab Joker’s arms and pin them to his own back.

“Oh, ho, ho…Batman silenced by a woman, if I recall the last to have that effect on you was a little more bodacious in the rack department, wasn’t she?” Joker said with a sly grin and I could only roll my eyes. Bruce just growled before he looked over at me.

“Can you handle Harley?” Bruce asked as I nodded. Joker suddenly glanced behind his shoulder at Harley.

“Harley now!” Joker bellowed as Harley bit at the cuticles of her fingers before producing the hand grenade that already had its pin removed. She pouted before looking over at me.  
“I’m so…sorry.” Harley said before tossing the grenade to the ground. I immediately flew my body into Bruce’s side, sending us flying out of a nearby window as the grenade went off, my body covering his. Joker, no doubt, had escaped…again.


	14. Puddin'

I sat in the tall backed, leather armchair next to the fire in the study of the Wayne Manor, idly watching with my eyes only as Bruce paced back and forth across the area rug in front of me. His brows were furrowed and one of his arms crossed over his chest as the other rested atop it, with his hand holding up his chin in concentration.

“You know, you’re going to catch that rug on fire pretty soon,” I finally said with a full lack of enthusiasm. This pacing and complete science had been going on for the past half an hour. At first, I didn’t want to disturb his brood but after a while it just became silly. Bruce stopped in his tracks, looking over his shoulder at me with a scowl. I found myself sliding down in my chair in an attempt to shrink myself. Man, if looks could kill, indeed.

“Kara, this isn’t funny. The _Joker_ is loose; this is an endless, vicious cycle that has been a whirlwind before you were even on Earth!” he bellowed at me. My eyebrows furrowed as I pushed myself from my chair and walked up to him, jutting my jaw skyward to look up at his face sternly.

“Bruce, I get that this is bad news. I get that with the Joker running around again; it poses yet another threat to Gotham City. What I don’t get is why you’re stewing over it and furthermore, why you’re taking it out on me!” I retorted, crossing my arms over my chest with a huff.

“You wouldn’t understand, Kara,” Bruce said with a grimace as he began to turn his body away from me. I grabbed him lightly by the arm to turn him back towards me.

“Try me,” I said lightly, a splash of concern flooding my face. Bruce raised his own hand to take the one that I had grabbed his arm with and held it delicately.

“Kara, this is my life. It is an endless road of curves, sudden drops, and random oceans to cross. It _never_ stops,” he said as he peered down at me. I became suddenly confused by his words and wondered exactly where he was going with this.

“Sounds pretty normal to me and I am even an alien on top of it,” I said with complete sincerity. Bruce let out a sigh as he quickly turned away from me, running his hands roughly over his face in frustration.

“Kara I thi-,” Bruce started to say before Alfred entered the room, clearing his throat.

“I am terribly sorry to interrupt, Master Bruce, but I wanted to inform you that Miss Barbara is here to see you and asked that her presence was announced this time due to…previous circumstances,”  Alfred said, seeming a little embarrassed to mention that last part. I would have smiled if it weren’t for my current annoyance with Bruce. Bruce nodded in response to Alfred as a symbol to escort Barbara in and I turned to look at the doorway as her wheelchair rolled in.

“Bruce!” she bellowed as her hands worked feverishly on the wheels till she was directly in front of him. I took a few steps closer so that I, too, could be included in on the urgent news.

“When you called to tell me the Joker was back, well, after about an hour long panic attack that is, but after I calmed down, I went into Oracle mode and did some research as to his possible whereabouts,” she said as she glanced between the two of us, her hands flailing about to emphasize her words.

“What did you find?” Bruce said with a scowl, his jaw squaring off sternly.

“Those random people that have had temporary powers because of those injections that have been floating around? The Joker is behind it all. He’s been running this crazy business from Arkham by psyching out some of the guards and other inmates with outside privileges!” she exclaimed and my lips slowly began to part.

“Were you able to pinpoint his location?” I asked impatiently, even leaning in towards her. She shook her head slowly keeping her eyes on Bruce, knowing he’d be the one most affected by this news.

“Unfortunately, no, but that…wasn’t all I found,” she said hesitantly as Bruce seemingly caught onto this and narrowed his eyes at her.

“What is it, Barbara?” he said sternly. I could tell that he meant business with Barbara when he _didn’t_ call her “Babs”. Barbara looked over at me for a long moment before she sighed and continued to tell us her findings.

“Joker…has figured out a way to vaporize kryptonite. Seems to like that its, well, you know… _green_?” She said meekly as my eyes widened immediately, looking over at Bruce who shook his head back and forth rapidly.

“He must have gotten word that Supergirl was spending more time in Gotham City; why else would he look to arm himself with kryptonite when he never even sets _foot_ in Metropolis?” Bruce bellowed as Barbara could only shrug in silence, biting her lip. I walked over to Bruce, putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

“Bruce, this doesn’t mean anything…Kal was dealing with Luthor having every form of kryptonite known in a dozen forms and is still living to tell the tale. Joker doesn’t even know the half of it, how could he?” I said quite sensibly, I was beside myself at my own words. Bruce crossed his arms over his chest as he continued to shake his head.

“This happens every time. _This_ is why I can _NOT_ have any kind of personal relationships. These villains in Gotham will stop at nothing to destroy anyone and anything they think even holds a fraction of my heart just to rattle the infamous _Bat._ Joker put you in a damned wheelchair for God’s sake, Babs!” Bruce bellowed as he rand his hands through his hair.

“Bruce, I made the decision to be Batgirl on my own. I knew the risks going in, no one forced to me do it,” Barbara said as Bruce barely took in her words before turning to me with a grimace.

“Kara, I can’t do this. It’s too risky for you and you have a big lug over in Metropolis who cares for you a great deal. I can’t be the reason he loses you. I’m…sorry,” Bruce said and my whole body went numb. I stared at him in disbelief, not even being able to speak before Barbara’s yelp brought me back to consciousness.

“Bruce!” Barbara bellowed as I took a deep swallow before speaking so that my voice would not be shaky.

“You’re joking with me right?” I asked with just a hint of hope in my tone. Bruce couldn’t even dignify my question with a verbal response as he slowly shook his head from side to side. I could feel the burning in my eyes as tears began to swell. I squared off my jaw and quickly walked out of the room before I completely lost all of my dignity. I perched myself in a room a few doors down in the hallway, sulking onto a nearby couch and immediately tuning into the obvious conversation that was about to ensue between Barbara and Bruce.

“Bruce, what the hell is wrong with you? Kara is perfect for you! She is a flipping Kryptonian that can’t be harmed by anything except kryptonite!” Barbara bellowed. I could just picture her wriggling around in her wheelchair as she said this, as her tone sounded insanely impatient.

“Precisely, _kryptonite_. She is not immortal,” Bruce said.

“Really, Bruce? She is the closest to immortal, fend for herself, independent, superhero girlfriend you are EVER going to find! Do you really want to die alone, Bruce?” Barbara said with complete seriousness to her tone. Bruce didn’t answer her right away, obviously contemplating her words.

“If that’s what it takes,” Bruce said simply and numbly. Barbara, too, paused a moment to contemplate his words before speaking.

“You love her,” Barbara said and my eyes grew wide as saucers as my hand covered the gasp escaping from my mouth. Bruce smirked in response.

“I care abou-,” Bruce started to say before Barbara immediately interrupted him.

“Bruce, I’ve known you for a _very_ long time and my dad has known you even longer. You wouldn’t be getting this worked up over this if you didn’t truly love that woman. You…love…her. I would highly suggest you think long and hard before you actually go through with this. I have a feeling she’s not the ‘shame me twice’ kind of gal,” Barbara said and she had to smirk to herself. She was never that close with Barbara, but she was seemingly good at reading people. Bruce remained silent and before he could say anything to her statement, she could hear Alfred’s voice joining the conversation.

“Master Bruce, again, so sorry to interrupt, but the Bat-Computer is picking up signals of Joker’s whereabouts; I thought you’d want to know,” Alfred said and I didn’t need to have super hearing to know that Bruce was already halfway to the Batcave to suit up and head out. I immediately left the room, running down the hall, completely ready to fly off to help him, but Barbara wheeled herself in front me.

“If I could offer some advice…I’d let him take this one,” Barbara said, peering up at me. I glanced up to see Bruce’s form disappearing into the secret entrance to the Batcave and I sighed.

“He’s going in hotheaded I should really-,” I said as I began to move forward again and Barbara turned the chair to block me. I could easily bypass her, but I let her stop me anyway; it was for the best.

“Fine,” I said, defeated, as I ran a hand through my hair. I was fighting off tears as I idly bit at the cuticle on my thumb. Barbara watched me for a moment before speaking.

“You care about him, huh?” Barbara said with a cant of her head. I peered up at the ceiling before letting my shoulders drop in frustration.

“He is...the singular person throughout my entire life since I’ve come to Earth that I’ve been able to be myself around. Even over Kal. People see us as these opposing forces that no doubt would ricochet off each other, but in reality, we just merge…perfectly. I’d really hate to be cheesy and quote Jerry Maguire but…he really does complete me,” I said and Barbara smiled the most ridiculously cheesy smile I think I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

“You two are a walking romantic comedy. Pure gold,” Barbara said as I smirked, putting my hands on my hips.

“Romantic drama more like it…,” I responded as she shook her head and leaned back in her chair.

“Nah…definitely comedy, there always has to be a little angst to wake up the Hero. Makes the groveling that much sweeter in the end,” Barbara said, still grinning like an idiot. I finally was able to offer a smile back before my heart began to race. I held my hand up to her as if to ask her to be quiet as I tried to listen with my super hearing. I shoved past her, yelling over my shoulder as I did so.

“Bruce is in trouble!” I bellowed, not waiting for a response or a disagreement as I changed into my outfit and flew out the front door. By the time I arrived on the scene, I looked down from my floating spot within the air to see Joker’s hand holding a detonation device as Harley was currently distracting Bruce by making him dodge a swinging baseball bat. My eyes widened as I saw Joker’s thumb push down on the button as the entire building they were in began to rumble.

Harley immediately slipped away into the shadows when only seconds later, the building started to collapse in on itself, but not before blocking the only entrance Bruce had to escape. I heard Joker say something to the effect of “Ta, ta,” before I flew forward, catching the half-fallen building on my shoulders right before it collapsed on top of Bruce. I grunted with all my might because even though I had super strength, exceptionally large objects such as, you know, well, buildings or…airplanes, were still a struggle. My knees started to buckle underneath me as I took a deep breath, mustering the strength to not only hold the building on my shoulders, but to toss it backward and away from us. I yelled at the top of my lungs as my eyes squinted tightly shut. The burning sensation that was forming in my arms started to emanate throughout my entire body and then, finally, I was able to adjust the building to remain upright once more so that it wouldn’t fall over into the adjacent building that was still intact. I breathed heavily and fell to my knees in exhaustion as Bruce ran over to me, kneeling on the ground beside me.

“Supergirl, that was…thank you,” Bruce said as I looked over at him weakly. I gave a small smile as I leaned my weight into him. He accepted without hesitation as I let out a sigh.

“So, that’s what it takes to prove I can take care of myself, huh, holding an entire building on my shoulders?” I said as I started to slowly regain my strength, sitting up again to peer on at him. He smirked lightly as he stared at me through the black orbs of his cowl. We were both caught off guard as the Bat symbol suddenly blazed in the foggy, night sky. Bruce was quick to respond to the call as I flew off with him. Once we landed atop the rooftop where the Batsignal resided, I was shocked to see the familiar form of the Joker tied to the Batsignal and he unconscious or worse. We both cautiously approached the body of the Joker, eyeing the note that was attached to him. Bruce removed the note to read it as I raised my hand to the Joker’s nostrils, feeling warm breath hit it.

“He’s still alive, what’s with the note?” I asked as he handed me the note with a light smirk.

“Batsy, I’ve come to a crossroads in my life and I deliver to you…Mr.J. Do with him what you want, but we both know you’ll take him back to Arkham. I’m skippin’ town, ain’t nothing for me here anymore. We’re square now, right? J -HQ” I read aloud as I now smirked, looking over at Bruce.

“Well, are you square?” I asked with light amusement as Bruce turned to me to brush the hair out of my eyes that seemed to fall in my face from the wind gusts at the top of the building.

“If she’s not around the Joker maybe she’ll actually be somewhat…sane. I’ll keep an eye on her. Was a big step, turning in her, ‘Puddin’ ‘ after all,” he said as I couldn’t help but smile at hearing Batman say the word, “Puddin’ “ just the way Harley had spoken it.

“How very alternative of you,” I said, rather surprised for the slight change in character.

“I’ve seemed to have been doing that a bit more lately,” he said as I felt a gloved hand wrap around my waist and pull me towards him, the nose piece of his cowl now touching my own nose.

“I was wrong; I think we can make this work. I want…to make it work,” he said as he peered down at me and I grinned.

“Just don’t make it a habit of letting building’s fall on you…I might not always be there to rescue you,” I said with a smirk and he smiled widely before kissing me ravenously.

“Well, isn’t…that… _sweet_ ,” the Joker suddenly said, a maniacal laugh infecting the air. I pulled back a moment, but Bruce immediately grabbed my face and turned me back towards him as a single fist rose and collided harshly into the face of the Joker, the laugh subsequently coming to a screeching halt.

-The End-

Note: Stay tuned for the epilogue!


	15. Epilogue

Three years later…

I leaned over the kitchen sink, idly thumbing through a magazine as I waited for the coffee to brew. A pair of strong, hard, and bared arms wrapped around my waist as I smiled and leaned back into Bruce’s chest, tipping my head up to the side to receive a kiss.

“Good morning, Lioness,” Bruce said to me, smiling as he reached passed me to grab the coffee pot that had _just_ finished brewing. He always had perfect timing and always relished in grabbing the first cup of coffee while I had always been waiting around for ten minutes for the stupid stuff to finish. I gave him a smirk as he grabbed a mug from the cupboard and smiled devilishly at me. I paused a moment to take in my surroundings.

I had been living at Wayne Manor with Bruce for the past 2 years and life was just beyond surreal. We were about as normal as any couple could be that moonlighted as superheroes, but we somehow were making it work. We were both still independently our own heroes and still teamed up when the situation called for it. Bruce had relaxed a lot this past year, in particular with his constant worry of me meeting my demise every time I’d fly off to fight an alien intruder. I grabbed a piece of mail from the counter and held it out to Bruce.

“Did you see this?” I asked, specifically referring to the photo that was in the envelope. Bruce brought the coffee mug to his lips and shook his head before peering up at me as if asking me to show him myself, obviously not wanting to set his mug down to free his hand. I rolled my eyes and idly laughed as I removed the picture from the envelope and Bruce smiled widely.

“I’m glad those two finally just went ahead and did it. Back in the day, the tension was so thick you could slice it with a knife,” Bruce said and I stared at him, having not believed the words that just came out of his mouth.

“Seriously, Bruce? What did you call us?” I asked and he shrugged his shoulders.

“We…weren’t love sick teenagers,” he remarked, giving me a sarcastic grin as I stared down at the picture of Dick Grayson and a very pregnant Barbara Gordon before grabbing a magnet from the fridge to attach it to the front. Barbara had received a chip from Queen Industries that was implanted in her spine and allowed her to walk again. It was beyond a miracle.  Suddenly, my head jerked and I looked over to Bruce with a sigh.

“Duty calls, Babe,” I said as I super sped away just to return as quickly as I left not donning my super outfit. He looked over at me nodding.

“Need help?” Bruce asked as I shook my head with a smirk.

“It’s just an intergalactic space demon. I’ll be back in two minutes…tops,” I gloated as he smirked and pressed a button on his watch before looking over at me.

“I’m timing you,” Bruce said as I smiled and flew off at top speed. Kal had gone on a vacation with Lois and asked me to keep an ear out for anything happening in Metropolis so he could hopefully avoid having to fly off in the middle of what he’d hoped would be an…eventful weekend, to which I dutifully agreed. He, too, had been a lot more relaxed nowadays with my playing superhero.

Once I reached Metropolis, the space demon was terrorizing a nearby building. I flew down at top speed, my fist colliding straight into the demon’s chest before I quickly appeared on the other side of him before slamming him into a building. I then grabbed onto the demon’s arm and started spinning him around quickly before hurling him up towards the sky. I pushed off the ground and flew straight up until I had caught up with the demon. Once the demon cleared the Earth’s atmosphere, both of my legs planted into the demon’s chest and I sent him hurling into Earth’s yellow sun with a smile as I dusted my hands off. I quickly turned back down towards Earth and flew as fast as I could to Wayne Manor, walking back into the kitchen in my normal clothes with a flick of my hair. Bruce glanced up at me, handing me a coffee mug with steaming caffeinated liquid.

“Two minutes and two seconds. Not two minutes tops as you said, but definitely a record,” Bruce said as he smiled up at me coyly and I could only roll my eyes. I lifted the mug to my lips before I turned and slipped onto Bruce’s lap, looking over the newspaper pages he was currently reading.

“You must be the last human on Earth that still reads the physical paper. Honestly, a million and one gadgets you have in that cave…,” I said to Bruce jokingly as he kissed my shoulder.

“Ever think that’s exactly _why_ I read the physical paper? Sometimes it feels good to just take a step back every once and awhile,” Bruce said and I lightly cooed into his shoulder, listening to his deep rumbly voice through his chest as he spoke.

“Speaking of which, what would you say to a walk?” he said as I lifted my head up and quirked an eyebrow quizzically.

“A…walk?” I said as if the word he just spoke was in Latin or something.

“Yes, a walk. You know, you put one foot in front of the other and you gingerly move to and fro,” Bruce said teasingly as I swatted him.

“We are both always just moving. Fly here, jet there, grappling hook, super speed. Just constantly on over drive. I think it’d be nice to just take a step back and slow down every once and awhile,” Bruce said, looking up at me and I smiled widely whilst sliding off his lap.

“I like this plan. Where do you want to…walk, to?” I asked as he stood up and smiled down at me.

“I know just the place,” he responded and I could have sworn I saw a little glimmer in his eyes.

Mere moments later, we were walking along the pier of Gotham Harbor. I pulled the jacket around my arms as the air had a slight chill to it from fall starting to work its way in to this part of the country. I smiled as I glanced around, remembering the first time that I had seen this place. Bruce stopped suddenly and I looked over my shoulder to him.

“Done walking?” I asked, canting my head.

“Do you recognize this very spot?” he asked as I looked around, trying to gauge my surroundings. I looked over at him quizzically.

“Right here, is the exact spot that your pod crash landed,” he said and I smiled widely, very impressed that he was able to remember this so clearly.

“You actually remember that? I figured your most vivid memory of that night would’ve been me walking buck naked, shooting lasers from my eyes in the Gotham streets,” I joked and he canted his head from side to side as if trying to weigh out all the options.

“No, that one is pretty vivid too,” he said as a devilish grin spread across his face. He then took both my hands in his and peered down at me.

“Kara, I honestly never thought that I’d be able to truly share my life with someone. I had completely given up the prospect until the day you were forced back into my life, ironically by Clark, no less,” he said as we both laughed a little. I didn’t dare interrupt this little speech he was giving; I wished my brain had a record button.

“There is no one else that I could ever be this normal or this relaxed around and you’re extremely gorgeous so I really lucked out there,” he mused as I butted my shoulder at him for the remark and rolled my eyes. Then suddenly, Bruce’s face began to lower as he sunk to one knee. My breath caught in my throat and my heart felt like it was going to leap out of my chest as I realized what was happening.

“So, I was hoping we could make this official,” Bruce said as he removed the ring box from his pocket and opened it to reveal what looked like an opal ring; my hands immediately went to my mouth as tears began to stream down my face.

“Linda Danvers, will you now go by Linda Wayne and do me the honor of being my wife?” he asked as a sharp squeal left my lungs that made Bruce grimace as I jumped up and down.

“Yes, Bruce, a million times yes!” I screamed as he slid the ring onto my finger. I didn’t even give him time to process anything before my body flung forward, planting a kiss on his lips and causing us both to fall to the ground with a loud thud, my body remaining atop his as I kissed him. Bruce chuckled beneath me as I pulled back to peer down at him with a smile.

“Well that was what I was hoping for in a reaction and then some,” Bruce said as I slipped off him and stood up. Bruce stood as well and reached for my hand with the ring.

“This ring is very special. This stone is actually a material that will glow when it detects kryptonite. I’ve had my R&D department at Wayne Enterprises working on it for the past 2 years,” Bruce said and I stared down at the ring in awe.

“Are you serious Bruce?” I asked and he nodded slowly.

“I’m not always going to be there for you and this will help keep you safe when I can’t,” Bruce said and I was just completely beside myself.

“With Lois and Clark’s approval, I was also going to alter Clark’s wedding band to contain the same material. You’ll _both_ be safer,” Bruce said and I just couldn’t help but hug him again, but this time with a little less fervor.

“We’re not even married yet and you are already the best husband,” I said with a smile as he leaned forward to kiss my forehead. I then turned to peer up at him, having a sudden thought.

“You know Clark is going to kill us right?” I said jokingly as Bruce cupped my face in his hand.

“I’d like to see him try.”

 

NOTE: Stay tuned as this series continues with the next installment moving to Harley Quinn’s point of view! Harley Quinn will run into a certain Merc with a Mouth…will it be love at first ass-grab?

NOTE: To read about the wedding, skip to the series finale OR read the other three stories that lead up to the finale and bring all characters full circle!

[Skip to Series Finale](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12521588/chapters/35205086)


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